§ Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.—[Mr. Lennox-Boyd.]
10.16 pm§ Mr. Anthony Coombs (Wyre Forest)Let me say first how grateful 1 am, as are a number of other hon. Members, for the opportunity to raise matters concerning the affairs of Poland and its relations with the United Kingdom—not only because I know that these matters are of interest in particular to you, Mr. Speaker, and to a number of other distinguished Members of the House, as evidenced in various early-day motions and an Adjournment debate in January, and not only because I know that they are of great interest to Poles in this country and of course in Poland, but because the debate deals with the future of Poland. the Polish people and the principles of freedom in Poland. That, of course, has an impact on the future stability of central Europe, and on East-West relations in general.
The tragedy of Poland is the tragedy of a proud and independent people who are ruled without their consent. Although they have a great cultural and artistic tradition, despite their intellectual achievements and abilities and although they have a land rich in minerals and a large industrial base, they have been so stifled, oppressed and bureaucratised by the machinery of a Communist state that their democratic freedoms have vanished. Law, instead of becoming an instrument of civilised values, has become an instrument of oppression. Now we hear that even the official trade unions—excluding Solidarity—have had their activities outlawed, and the standard of living has sadly fallen to what can only be described as Third-world levels.
Infant mortality in Poland is the highest in Europe, and life expectancy is the lowest. The prices of food have risen by some 40 per cent. in the past two months alone. Essentials such as meat, cotton wool and even razor blades are rationed, and it has been calculated that the residual monthly income, after basic housing expenses, of a family of four with both parents working would not even cover the cost of one pair of winter shoes.
Most irresponsible of all—and most serious of all—so bad has been the organisation of Poland's mineral resources and its industry that no less than one third of the country is now classed as an area of ecological emergency. The very soil of the country is being slowly poisoned.
Why is this? The simple answer is that the economy is being ossified under an archaic and arthritic Communist system. Subsidies, price controls and a nomenclature system mean that three-quarters of the country's managers care more for their party perks than the efficiency of the enterprise they are charged to run.
The results are plain. The Centre for Research into Communist Economies shows that inflation is running at 60 per cent., that coal resources are being heavily wasted and that the external debt is £37,000 million, which is not only 50 per cent. of the gross domestic product but second only to Russia in the Communist world. Possibly most damning of all, despite the fact that there is 25 per cent. more industrial equipment in the country than there was in 1980, industrial productivity per man has fallen by one fifth. It is small wonder that, since 1980, no fewer than 700,000 Poles have decided to leave their homeland.
1200 What is the Polish Government's response? Officially they talk of democratisation, of economic reform and of the need to reduce subsidies and encourage private enterprise, but the reality is that, because they do that without the basic consent of the people, the system is only kept in place by oppression, by a denial of basic freedom and human rights, and by arbitrary surveillance and imprisonment of those who dare to question the regime and even of their children.
I am pleased to inform the House of the release of Hanna Lukowska-Karniej, Andrzej Kolodziej, Jan Andrzej Gorny and Kornel Morawiecki, all Solidarity supporters. However, all those people were imprisoned on trumped-up charges ranging from non-payment of maintenance through misappropriation of identity cards to completely fictitious acts of terrorism.
Despite this, the events of the last month show us that, if anything, the duplicity and political violence of the Communist regime in Poland have intensified. Despite assurances which were given to the Church.Mr. Morawiecki has not been allowed back from exile into his own country. No fewer than 70 Solidarity leaders and two thirds of its executive committee have been arrested. Students at Cracow university and eleswhere have been brutally beaten. Probably most heinous of all, the Communist authorities merely use the Catholic Church as a convenient intermediary for trying to settle, in its words, "a peaceful strike" at the Nova Huta steelworks in Cracow. Then, without justification or notice, they attacked the steelworks with stun grenades, tear gas and clubs in a horrifying and gratuitous display of violence. If anything demonstrates the cynicism, duplicity and contempt for democratic argument of the Polish regime, it was those events.
What can the British Government do to help reverse the position in Poland and the dangers it undoubtedly possesses for central European stability, especially in view of the Prime Minister's intended visit to Poland in October? The first thing to remember is that, although it is important, in the words of the Minister of State at the Foreign Office recently,
to express our views strongly to the Polish authorities on human rights and to deplore the use of political violence",and although it is important to use channels like the British Council in Warsaw, the World Service and organisations such as Medical Aid for Poland and the Jagiellonian Trust in this country, mere exhortation is not enough to produce reform within the Polish Government.Secondly, whatever the public position of the Polish Government may be—and there are signs that certain Politburo members, especially the newer ones, are becoming aware of that—they must recognise that perestroika and attempts to reform in Russia make Mr. Gorbachev more sensitive and vulnerable to unrest in Soviet satellite countries than he has ever been before.
There are two reasons for that. First, he knows that any need for direct intervention in those countries by the Soviet Union would kill detente, which is so vital to his economic reform programme. Secondly, any need to do so would give the hardliners in Moscow precisely the arguments they want to make sure that the perestroika programme no longer takes place.
Equally, the Polish Government must inwardly he sensitive to the same issues. If they are to carry through a programme of economic reform, including the abolition of subsidies, freeing up the supply system by introducing 1201 more private sector businesses and restructuring the economy, the Polish Government and opposition recognise that that will involve a necessary austerity. The short-term effects of that austerity, if it is to be peacefully carried forward, must be mitigated. If they are to be mitigated, the Polish Government urgently need foreign credits, and that means a successful restructuring of their official foreign debts—on which they have paid no interest since 1982—more foreign investment, and more aid.
That presents the British Government with a unique opportunity to persuade its EEC, American and other partners in finance that there can be credits and there can be aid in generous quantities for Poland, but that it will be possible only on certain conditions. Those conditions must be made absolutely plain.
The first condition is that the Polish Government must ensure freedom of association and political opinion within Poland and from without into Poland. Secondly, all political prisoners must be released, and those who are presently in exile must be allowed to return home. Thirdly, the legitimate rights of trade unions and other opposition activists must be recognised and respected. Fourthly, and possibly most important, a genuine and continuing dialogue on economic and political reform must be started and continued with Polish people.
Such a course of action is realistic and imaginative. It would help to restore freedom to the Polish people, and prosperity for their country, inevitably it would mean that relations between Britain and Poland would quickly improve, and I believe that it is a course of action which the Government ought to follow, as it would offer hope for the Polish people who so desperately seek it.
§ Sir Bernard Braine (Castle Point)I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Wyre Forest (Mr. Coombs) for providing me with an opportunity to say a few words about our relations with Poland.
The Minister will know of my interest and involvement. I am of the generation that had good reason to be grateful for Polish courage and sacrifice during the second world war. I am of the generation that felt and still feels ashamed of the way in which our Polish comrades were abandoned by the West in 1945. I hold to the view most strongly that there can be no lasting detente between East and West until Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and all the captive nations of Eastern Europe are free to determine their own destiny. That was put so eloquently by my hon. Friend that I need not say anything more about it.
It is safe to say, however, that I thought that it was also the view of Her Majesty's Government. I applauded the robust way in which my right hon. and learned Friend the Foreign Secretary earlier condemned the brutal suppression of Solidarity and the imposition of military rule. However, of late that seems to have changed somewhat. I was astonished to learn from The Sunday Times of 8 May that my right hon. and learned Friend has greater sympathy with General Jaruzelski in the Polish crisis than with the Solidarity movement. He believes, we were told, that Jaruzelski should be regarded as a patriot for safeguarding his country against Russian military intervention. Really—I thought that the Afghans had 1202 more to do with it than that. The Soviets could hardly wage war on two fronts or suppress two nations at the same time.
I am deeply concerned about that statement. The recent wave of unrest in Poland was brutally suppressed by the police. There were numerous arrests, serious injuries, heavy fines and dismissals from work, and Solidarity itself remains suppressed. I suggest that there is only one way forward for the Polish authorities, and Western Governments should be urging it repeatedly—namely, to borrow a little glasnost and perestroika from Mr. Gorbachev, who sees more openness as the means of securing real reconstruction. They should recognise that there is no way out of the mess that Communist rule has made of Poland except by recognising the natural aspirations of the Polish people to be masters in their own house.
There are two things that Her Majesty's Government can do. First, they can make it absolutely plain, as my hon. Friend the Member for Wyre Forest has done in his own way, that economic aid will be forthcoming only if the Polish Government seek a genuine partnership with Solidarity and the opposition. Secondly, they should make it plain that the inhumane treatment of Polish leaders—such as Kornel Morawiecki, who, after long imprisonment without trial, was deported without the right to return to his country—must end if the Polish Administration are to be treated as civilised. I beg my hon. Friend the Minister to make it absolutely clear that the West is ready to help the long-suffering Polish people, but only on the condition that their just aspirations are met and that the persecution ceases.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr. Tim Eggar)This is the second time in less than six months that Poland has been chosen as the subject for an Adjournment debate. Poland is never far from the centre of international events. During recent weeks it has once again occupied the headlines in unhappy circumstances.
I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Wyre Forest (Mr. Coombs) on his choice of subject for the debate, which is of real and continuing importance. I am delighted that my right hon. Friend the Member for Castle Point (Sir B. Braine) has once again joined in the debate on Poland. Everybody in the House very much respects his long-term commitment to the Polish people and we recognise the considerable amount of time that he devotes to the interests of the Polish people. I recognise that because I know that he was in contact with my office last week on behalf of Mr. Morawiecki. We are delighted to say that we have been able to grant him a visa to come from Vienna to the United Kingdom in what I think my right hon. Friend will agree was rapid time.
In the House on 11 January, my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Putney (Mr. Mellor) reviewed Britian's relations with Poland and developments since the emergence of Solidarity in 1980 and 1981. He acknowledged the importance of Poland in East-West relations and the breadth and significance of links between our two countries. Those links are deep and lasting. Their origins lie in distant and recent wartime history. They are 1203 strengthened by commercial, cultural and personal ties that set our relations with Poland apart, in many repects, from those with other countries in eastern Europe.
The political and economic conditions in Poland are not, for hon. Members or for many of their constituents, matters of cold theory. They are matters of immediate practical concern. I class myself as one who is affected by that, because until recently I had the benefit of a Polish uncle.
As my hon. and learned Friend said in the debate in January, we were glad to welcome the Polish Foreign Minister, Professor Orzechowski, to London in December. That visit acknowledged what seemed like a new and welcome approach by the Polish authorities: a more resolute attitude towards the many challenges that confronted their country. All those in prison on clearly political charges had been released in September 1986. Plans for economic reform had taken more coherent shape and the need for political reform was at last officially acknowledged.
I should like now to say a few words about the Polish economy and about the Government's approach to Poland's economic difficulties. The Polish economy is burdened with a growing external debt that now amounts to about $39 billion. It is also burdened with low productivity, as my hon. Friend the Member for Wyre Forest said, and by excess demand. Recovery of the economy will come about only through a determined attack on the economic causes of those problems. It will also come about only if the Polish people can be brought to understand the need for sacrifices and can be persuaded that those sacrifices are worth while.
Our long-standing trade links and the sizeable Polish community in Britain provide a solid base for further expansion of trade between our two countries. Despite Poland's current financial difficulties, worthwhile opportunities exist for increasing trade in a number of sectors. But future trade prospects must depend on the scale and direction of Poland's economic recovery. A Polish economy restored to vigour and success is in British, as well as Polish, interests.
We recognise that long-term Western assistance will be needed for this recovery. Britain strongly supports the principle of an IMF programme for Poland, subject to that programme's terms being satisfactory. Once an IMF programme is in place, it is possible to envisage new forms of co-operation—for instance, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development co-financing schemes and fresh medium and long-term credits, targeted on export-earning projects—but we first need the assurance that sound economic policies will be pursued with the IMF's seal of approval. Ambitious plans for massive Western economic assistance to Poland, in the absence of these conditions, are not realistic.
Hon. Members have suggested, tonight and on previous occasions, that political conditions should be attached to decisions in these economic areas. Frankly, I do not agree. Polish economic recovery will come about only as a result of motivation and persuasion, not of coercion. The same vital principle applies to relations between Western countries and the Polish authorities. It would be an error to prescribe persuasion as a solution to Poland's internal problems, and to seek by contrast to use political coercion as a means of solving Poland's economic difficulties. Thus, Western official debt relief for Poland is 1204 negotiated in the Paris Club on technical, rather than political, grounds. Those are the same criteria as are applied to non-Communist countries.
Political factors do not determine the Government's approach to new credits, either. We favour a step-by-step approach to the normalisation of financial and credit relations with Poland, starting with the resumption of short-term credit cover. After that, progress will depend upon Polish performance in honouring existing debt-restructuring agreements. A steady but critical dialogue with the Polish authorities is needed, from within and outside Poland.
My hon. Friend the Member for Castle Point spoke about an article in the Sunday Times on 8 May. That article was not an accurate reflection of the views of my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. To learn about those views it is necessary to refer to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office statement of 6 May, which commented on what were then recent events. That statement deplored the use of police violence in pursuing the objective of reform and called upon the Polish authorities to recognise the importance of individual liberties and freedom of association.
That national statement of 6 May was followed on 10 May by a statement on behalf of the Twelve by the Federal Republic of Germany in its capacity as current President of the European Community. That statement reminded the Polish authorities of their international commitments to human rights and called for the release of those arrested during the recent strikes.
My right hon. and learned Friend the Foreign Secretary made clear in yet another statement on 12 May. which is available in the Library, his view that the Polish Government's plans for economic reform deserved support because they offered the prospect of a better life for the Polish people. Those economic plans involve short-term sacrifices but, of course, they will have little effect unless the Polish people are prepared and willing to support them.
Those statements show the extent to which The Daily Telegraph was in error when, on 13 May, in a leading article, it accused the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of failing to encourage dissident groups in eastern Europe and of maintaining—it is almost unbelievable that The Daily Telegraph said this—a "stony silence" during the recent crisis in Poland.
That leading article was a deplorable distortion of the Government's policy. Getting the Soviet Union and its allies to live up to their human rights commitments is fundamental to the Government's policy. As my hon. and learned Friend the Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office said in a speech at the CSCE review meeting in Vienna last month, we are not prepared to leave the Vienna conference without real progress on human rights. My hon. and learned Friend made it clear that what our Soviet colleagues have called a "common European home" could not be achieved with barbed wire in the garden and secret policemen in the cellar.
The Government are worried that once again prisoners should be held in Poland for political reasons. As my right hon. and hon. Friends have said, recent arrests and sentences have included senior members of Solidarity. Some of those imprisoned have been released, and that is welcome. As my hon. and learned Friend said in January, 1205 there are some people in prison in Poland on criminal charges, but arguably there is a political element in the charges.
The Government share the concern that my right hon. and hon. Friends have expressed about imprisonment in Poland for political reasons and on many occasions we have made those concerns clear to the Polish authorities. Such imprisonments cannot but damage prospects for improved relations between Britain and Poland. They are an obstacle to Poland's plans for effective economic reform. They represent a return to the discredited policies of the past.
As the House knows, my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister has accepted an invitation to visit Poland. She hopes that circumstances will make it possible for the visit to take place before the end of the year. In her discussions with General Jaruzelski and the Polish leadership, as well as with Mr. Lech Walesa and representatives of independent opinion, she will, I am sure, wish to reflect the concerns that have been expressed in this debate. In 1206 particular, she will wish to refer to the essential relationship between political and economic reform, and I am positive that she will stress the need for human rights to be respected in Poland.
The pressures within Polish society have once again burst to the surface in recent weeks. There is no lack of energy, talent and commitment in Poland, if only they can be harnessed, but the Polish people have shown again and again that they will not put their shoulders to the wheel unless their interests are taken into account. For the reasons that I have given, I do not believe that Governments outside Poland should set political conditions for economic or financial help, but Poland's leaders must recognise that they will never get Poland's economy back on its feet without consultation, dialogue, and respect for individual freedom and initiative. I hope that the events of recent weeks will convince those leaders that that is the only path to the economic revival that we in this country most earnestly wish to see.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Adjourned accordingly at Fifteen minutes to Eleven o'clock.