Two Notes

Almost at the same time as the well-known "note of protest" against the "white terror" in Poland, which, one may boldly say, represents the voice of all West European opinion, only formulated in an appeal by the most eminent figures of France, the Polish government received a note quite analogous in moral meaning but much stronger in legal force. It is a note of protest against the violence and abuse inflicted on Belarusians and Ukrainians, and it comes from the East, from the government of the great Union of Soviet Republics, our neighbour. We do not yet have the full text of this note, so we give its content according to the reports printed in the Polish newspapers.

The Soviet government asserts that Poland systematically violates, and has reduced to nothing, all the obligations and guarantees that it signed in the Treaty of Riga.

Art. 7 of the Treaty seemingly does not exist at all for the Polish government.

It is very interesting that Chicherin's note blames the lower representatives of the administration less for all the violence, abuse and arbitrariness. It lays all the guilt on those "highest representatives of the central authorities of the Polish Republic" who are the true culprits of the violations of the Treaty, because in their frequent speeches they "authoritatively" proclaimed that only the citizen who is a Pole is the "born master in Poland" and has the full measure of rights, while the rest of the citizens, the non-Poles, are, as it were, handed over to this "master" only under a more or less lenient guardianship, dependent on their conduct and lawfulness…

In this way a whole third of the citizens of the Polish Republic, equal under the laws, has been declared by the highest authorities of the Land to be limited in its rights as compared with the privileged Polish population.

Chicherin's note proves all this by referring to the speeches of the President of the Polish Republic and of the former premier, General Sikorski, which every Belarusian knows.

The note then cites a whole series of acts of violence committed against Ukrainians and Belarusians by the police, the administration and the army. It sharply criticises the orders and practices of the Polish authorities in the field of settlement, as well as their school and church policy.

Speaking of the position of the Orthodox Church in Poland, the note asserts that "the principle guaranteed in point 3 of Art. 7, that the authorities must not interfere in the affairs and life of the church and of religious communities, has remained fulfilled only in the Treaty itself"…

The note stresses a series of "attacks on the movable and immovable property of the Orthodox Church, with the forcible conversion of Orthodox churches into Roman Catholic churches (kasciol)".

Likewise the note points out the aims of the settlement policy, which are not so much "economic" (for what sort of real "economists" are these soldier-settlers?!) as political and denationalising, and which quite clearly violate the prescriptions of Art. 7 of the Treaty.

The note further protests against the constant repressions by the Polish authorities against the Belarusian and Ukrainian press.

"From all that has been said," the note concludes, "it is quite clear that the Polish authorities have openly shown their unwillingness to fulfil the obligations that Poland took upon itself by signing the Treaty of Riga. This is not the first time that the Soviet government has drawn the attention of the Polish government to its complete disregard of Art. 7 of the Treaty. Now the Soviet government is compelled once more to remind the Polish government that the exact and steady fulfilment of this Art. 7 of the Treaty is an essential condition for establishing good relations between both Lands"…

And what did the Polish government reply to this note? Here is what.

"The Polish government sees with regret that it cannot recognise this note as a basis for a businesslike discussion"…

"Without entering into an assessment of the accusations raised in the note under the guise of Art. 7 of the Treaty, the Polish government rejects them with all resolution as an attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of the Polish state"…

The Polish government then protests, for its part, against the note's criticism of the statements and speeches of the President and the higher authorities of the Republic.

The Polish reply says nothing at all about what is being done in Poland. It speaks polemically about what is being done in the U.S.S.R., where the Soviet government, not only toward the minorities but even toward its own majority, does worse than that against which it protests in its note to Poland.

At the end the Polish government says that in future, too, it will "leave entirely without reply" any "groundless, inadmissible and unlawful claims, presented supposedly by virtue of Art. 7 of the Treaty".

This reply of the Polish government truly ought to enter the history of our… post-war times.

How far the accusations of violence are "groundless" every Belarusian and Ukrainian knows well.

How far these accusations are "unlawful" is stated clearly by the no less clear content of Art. 7 of the Treaty of Riga. That article is precisely the "basic law" regulating the mutual obligations of Poland and the U.S.S.R. It gives precisely the right of interference, or of protection: to Poland for the Polish minority in the U.S.S.R., and to the U.S.S.R. for the Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian population in Poland. It is a law bearing the signatures of the lawful plenipotentiaries of the latter..

As for how far these accusations are "inadmissible", we do not undertake to judge: that is a matter of how much, and why, anyone has or has not respect for anyone…

We note only once more that at the same time Poland received from the West a "note" that was, evidently, likewise "groundless, unlawful and inadmissible", since its content was quite the same…

Muryn.