HC Deb 20 February 1946 vol 419 cc1125-6
10. Major Tufton Beamish

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he will initiate arrangements for an international commission to visit Poland as soon as possible and to be present during the elections to advise and assist the Polish Provisional Government in their preparations for, and conduct of, such elections.

Mr. Bevin

The Polish Provisional Government have pledged themselves to His Majesty's Government and the Governments of the United States and the U.S.S.R. in the terms of the Crimea Agreement on Poland to hold free and unfettered elections as soon as possible on the basis of universal suffrage and secret ballot, in which all democratic and anti-Nazi parties shall have the right to take part and to put forward candidates. Mr. Bierut at Potsdam further assured me that the elections would be held on the basis of the 1921 Polish Constitution: If those pledges are strictly fulfilled in the arrangements made for the elections, an international commission would appear neither necessary nor desirable.

Major Beamish

Does not the right hon. Gentleman think that the presence of an international commission or some foreign observers, however few in number, might be a steadying influence in a country where political feeling is running very high at the moment?

Mr. Bevin

Yes, Sir, but I really cannot take on all the burdens of all these countries. We have got the undertaking of the Provisional Government, and I cannot anticipate that they are going to do wrong. I must see whether they do.

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