POLISH RESETTLEMENT CORPS (Hansard, 12 May 1948)

§ Mr. Bevin

Yes. Following is the text of the Polish Government's Note to which the British Note, published on 5th May, was the reply.

Warsaw. 1st April, 1948.

YOUR EXCELLENCY,

My Government, desirous of helping to liquidate as soon as possible all the problems which arose during the course of the war and which form an obstacle in the re-establishment of normal and friendly relations between Poland and Great Britain on numerous occasions approached His Majesty's Government 217W with a request to carry out the speedy demobilisation of the former Polish Armed Forces under British Command.

Taking into consideration the fact that the question of the demobilisation and repatriation of former Polish Armed Forces under British command was the subject of the Potsdam decisions, and remains a matter which greatly interests our two countries, my Government tried to secure the proper solution of this question through mutual agreement between our two Governments.

2. In their note of the 20th May, 1946, His Majesty's Government communicated the fact that they had made their own decisions on the subject of the former Polish Armed Forces under British command, namely, the creation in Great Britain of the Polish Training and Resettlement Corps, which had as its task the facilitating of the transfer of Polish soldiers into civilian life.

3. The attitude of my Government towards the question of former Polish Armed Forces under British command was expressed in M.F.A. Notes of the 14th February, 1946, No. 1465/46; the 2nd May, 1946, No. 329/3434/46; of the 4th June, 1946, No. 195/5247/46; the 8th August, 1946. No. 195/9656/46; the 15th April, 1947, No. GM/34/886 and in Notes from the Polish Embassy in London.

In the above Notes and other statements my Government expressed their basic reservations towards the unilateral decisions of His Majesty's Government and stressed that the recruitment of the Polish Resettlement Corps was in collision with the existing law on Polish citizenship of 20th January, 1920.

My Government also drew the attention of His Majesty's Government to the clearly detrimental consequences for the interests of the soldier masses, Polish-British relations and general post-war relations in Europe by the delay in the demobilisation of the former Polish Armed Forces under British command and the existence of the Polish Resettlement Corps.

In their Note of the 8th August, 1946, my Government made a proposal to call info being, in place of the Polish Resettlement Corps, of another organisation in Britain for training for civilian life of these, soldiers who in the meantime had not decided to return to their country. However, this proposal was not accepted by His Majesty's Government.

4. The course of events during the last two years confirmed fully the correctness of the forecasts and reservations of the Polish Government. Both the Polish Resettlement Corps and the hitherto not demobilised centres of the former Polish Armed Forces under British command, bound personally and financially with the political apparatus existing in Great Britain and beyond her frontiers, which is centred around the so-called "London Government," were used by certain factors for warlike agitation, development of propaganda based on slander against the return to Poland, and for the conducting of diversionary, subversive and intelligence activities directed against the Polish Government.

218W

The emigre Press paid for out of social funds of the former Polish units under British command has also been used as a tool for war agitation and propaganda against the return to Poland.

5. A blatant proof that the Polish Resettlement Corps is a British military formation subject to special military regulations is found in the refusal of the War Office to release from the Corps of a Polish officer, Second-Lieutenant Z. Gawlikowski, who was to be employed in the office of the Commercial Counsellor in the Polish Embassy in London. This refusal, which was communicated to the Embassy on the 20th March, 1948, was based on special British military restrictions

6. My Government are compelled to state that up to the present moment there exists beyond the frontiers of Great Britain, including the countries of the Near East, such as Egypt, Palestine and the Lebanon, a network of non-mobilised Polish military centres and camps paid for by the British Treasury and subject to British command. In France, apart from the Military Liquidating Mission in Paris, there exist military centres at Lille, Lannoy, Calais and Nice.

The non-demobilised Polish centres and camps of the former Polish Armed Forces under British command which exist beyond the frontiers of Great Britain were also used, under the cloak of serving for purposes of demobilisation and liquidation, for political and military action against the Polish state. As is apparent from the complaints made by soldiers released from these camps, the Polish commands of individual camps often employ open chicanery and discrimination towards soldiers who refuse to join the Polish Resettlement Corps and do not issue to such soldiers the pay and demobilisation grants due to them

7. As is apparent from the British Army estimates published in February, 1948, His Majesty's Government foresee credits amounting to £4,295,000 for the further maintenance of "Polish Troops," which, according to the Estimates, will consist of the Polish Resettlement Corps and the "Polish Land Forces." The number of "Polish Troops" paid out of the Budget of Great Britain and remaining under British command will amount in the year 1948–49, according to the Army Estimates to 30,000 men, consisting of 20,000 other ranks and 10,000 members of officer cadres

8 The published British Army Estimates give evidence that His Majesty's Government have taken a decision to prolong the existence of the Polish Resettlement Corps beyond the two-year limit, laid down by the existing Bill, and to maintain under British command of non-demobilised Polish units in the budgetary year 1948–49. I think that in the light of the remarks made above it would be superfluous for me to comment in the present Note on the impression made on the Polish Government by this new unilateral and unexpected decision of His Majesty's Government, which cannot be reconciled either with the substance of the Potsdam agreements, or with the repeated assurances given by 219W His Majesty's Government that the demobilisation of the former Polish Armed Forces under British command will be carried out in as short a time as possible.

9. Summing up the facts quoted in this Note, I am compelled in the name of my Government to state that while in economic matters our Governments recently concluded a number of useful agreements and understandings, which give cause to hope for the further increase of co-operation in this sphere, the normalisation of Polish-British relations as a whole continues to suffer as a result of the tactics—incomprehensible to my Government —employed by His. Majesty's Government, who in spite of the passage of nearly three years from the cessation of military activities in Europe, delay the liquidation of the very delicate transitional conditions which are the result of the late war.

10 In connection with the new decisions of His Majesty's Government discussed above, and revealed in the Army Estimates for the year 1948–49, my Government, while formulating the most categorical reservations towards these decisions, request His Majesty's Government, through the intermediary of Your Excellency, to consider afresh the whole problem and to carry out as soon as possible the full and effective demobilisation of the former Polish Armed Forces under British command and the speediest liquidation of the Polish Resettlement Corps

I take the opportunity once again to assure You, Excellency of my unchanging respect.

(Signed) Z. Modzelewski."