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Show Washington, D. -C ORLEMAN'SKI-LANGE TALKS WITH STALIN Two of the most important diplomatic diplo-matic reports of the war have been received at the White House recently, recent-ly, not from any trained diplomats, but from two private American citizensFather cit-izensFather Orlemanski of Springfield, Spring-field, Mass., and Prof. Oscar Lange, Polish-American leader and a teacher teach-er at the University of Chicago, both of whom had interviews with Stalin., Although less widely publicized than Father Orlemanski's interview. Professor Lange had a long separate talk with Marshal Stalin and, perhaps per-haps because he was not circumscribed circum-scribed by church superiors, his report, re-port, on the whole, has been the more penetrating and helpful.- New conclusion drawn from the Lange-Orlemanski reports is that Polish-Russian relations, one of the most troublesome problems of the war, are. on the eve of a wholesome rapprochement, probably beginning about now. It was shortly after the receipt of the Lange-Orlemanski reports thai President Roosevelt began a series of three conferences with Polish Premier Mikolajczyk in Washington, the results of which exceeded ex pectations. If Polish-Russian relations can be settled amicably, one of the worst obstacles to postwar peace will be removed. Poland, Po-land, for a hundred years partially par-tially governed by Russia, has a deep-rooted suspicion of the Soviet, while the Russians, having hav-ing borne the main brunt of the European war on land, naturally natural-ly feel they are entitled to areas forcibly wrested away from them after the last war. STALIN DISCUSSES POLISH BOUNDARIES In their separate interviews with Stalin, the two Polish-Americans, Father Orlemanski and Professor Lange, heard the reassuring words from the strong man of Russia that his government wants a "strong, in- dependent Poland after the war a Poland which will be strong both internally and externally, but which will be favorably disposed to the Soviet Union." Stalin went even further and said that he was ready to help create a new Polish army. "I am ready to build an army for Poland, equip it fully and arm it with the best' guns the Soviet Union can make," he told Professor Lange. "I will do this for at least 1,000,000 men." Stalin also discussed the question of Poland's future boundaries and revealed that they had already been discussed in some detail at Teheran. In doing so, he let drop a very important im-portant point that, at Teheran, Roosevelt and he had agreed to the breakup of Germany after the war. ' "Poland should claim East Prussia," Prus-sia," Stalin said, "and should also claim Upper Silesia and all the German Ger-man territory, up to the Oder river, including Stettin." NOTE This would give Poland Po-land practically all of Pom-erania, Pom-erania, a great stronghold of Prussian militarism. Shortly after Teheran, this columnist reported re-ported that the Big Three had proposed giving Pomerania, East Prussia and Silesia to Poland, Po-land, in order to separate the Prussian junkers from the rest of Germany and stamp out German Ger-man militarism for keeps. Stalin told his visitors that he was not sure whether Poland should get Breslau (in Silesia) or not. When these plans for Poland had come up at Teheran, Stalin disclosed, dis-closed, President Roosevelt had been in complete agreement, but Prime Minister Churchill had hesitated. hesi-tated. "He asked me: 'Who is to guarantee guar-antee the security of this new Polish state?' I answered him simply: 'The . armed might of the Soviet Union.' " POLES IN RUSSIA Professor Lange had been permitted permit-ted to visit with the Polish army inside Russia which is fighting side by side with the Red army. He also had' talked with various Polish leaders inside Russia, and he told Stalin that he was deeply moved by he splendid treatment given the Posh Po-sh army by the Red army. Several days after Professor Lange had arranged with Wanda Wasilievska, head of the pro-Soviet pro-Soviet Union of Polish Patriots, to better the living conditions of Polish refugees in Russia, Stalin Sta-lin informed Mme. Wasilievska that better war conditions now permitted better living conditions condi-tions and that Polish refugees should share in the improvement. improve-ment. SCORES POLISH INTELLIGENCE SERVICE Stalin was quite cynical about the Polish intelligence service inside Poland and the reports of alleged conditions it had made to Premier Mikolacjzyk. All it did, he said, was deceive the Polish government-in-exile in London. Foreign Commissar Molotoff, who was present during the interview, interrupted in-terrupted at this point to say that, in a recent speech, Premier Mikolajczyk Miko-lajczyk had claimed he had the support sup-port of 90 per cent of the Polish people. |