South Yorkshire Times, 22 January 1944

Pitfalls of Peace

An estrangement such as that which has developed between the Soviet and the Polish Governments is the last thing which any of the United Nations could have desired. It must be the cause of great glee in Berlin.

The moment the Red Army crossed the old Polish- Soviet frontier the issue was bound to thrust itself into the foreground of political events. The result is that at one of the most delicate periods of the war Allied diplomacy is faced with a problem in the solution of which an extraordinary amount of skill and tact will be required.

One aspect of the situation which is favourable is that the controversy is subject to the unifying influence of war. The parties concerned know very well, or should do, that it is highly expedient for them to compose their differences, and however many circumstances conspire to keep them apart their common interest in the destruction of a deadly adversary should exercise a sobering influence. To allow the rift to open too far would be to admit that all that has so gloriously been fought for has been done in vain.

It is a thousand pities that the Polish leader, General Sikorski, lost his life in the tragic plane crash in the Mediterranean seven months ago. He it was who in 1941 signed an agreement with Russia on behalf of his country. There was even at that time bitter and ill-advised criticism of this stroke from elements in the Polish government, whose romanticised patriotism got the better of their sense of realism. With Sikorski gone there was no one capable of averting the catastrophe of last spring, when the Soviet Government broke off diplomatic relations with Poland.

This was the outcome of a piece of diabolical German propaganda. The Nazis “found ” at Katyn, near Smolensk the mass grave of ten thousand Polish officers and alleged they had been murdered by the Russians. Despite the fact that for the previous eighteen months the Germans themselves had occupied Katyn, the Polish Government so far credited this specious and typical story as to demand a Red Cross investigation; a gratuitous insult to Russia and a sensational victory for Goebbels.

Seen within this historical framework the Russian proposals, Polish response, and Russian reaction, with the fantastic “Pravda” story about Ribbentrop’s “meeting” with English officials cause less surprise than distress. It has to be said, however, that the somewhat hectoring attitude of the Russians has not helped matters.

Doubtless the issue raised is one which Britain and America, specially preoccupied with invasion plans, could have wished postponed. It is the first, and perhaps the worst, of many such crises which will have to be surmounted before order is restored in the world. There are too many nations, too many different races with too many differing outlooks and interests concerned for us to expect that permanent peace, or anything like it, can be readily or quickly established.

Peace is plainly not something which can be left to follow in the train of war. Its problems are already with us. We must carry on the fight unfalteringly, but just as surely we must make a sane, rational and positive contribution to a settlement which in this instance is more immediate than ultimate.