No Time Lost

Moscow did not lose a minute. The same day that Russian armies swept into Chelm, first big Polish town to fall to them west of the Curzon Line, a new Polish Committee of National Liberation moved in. It was Moscow's Union of Polish Patriots under a new name--in effect, a new Russian-backed government of Poland.

Next day the Moscow radio announced that the Liberation Committee would perform all the functions of the Polish Government in Exile in London. Moscow also announced three decrees in the name of the pro-Soviet Polish National Council in Warsaw. The decrees:

>> Created the committee of National Liberation to direct civil administration in the "liberated" areas of Poland.

>> Placed the Union of Polish Patriots and all Polish activities in Russia under the new Liberation Committee.

>> Merged the Polish Army in Russia and the underground in Poland under the new committee's single command.

In Chelm, meanwhile, the new Committee of Liberation proclaimed the Polish Government in Exile illegal, charged that it represented the "Fascist" constitution of 1935.

Best-known member of the new committee: Wanda Wasilewska, best-selling Soviet novelist (The Rainbow) and wife of Alexander Korneichuk, until recently the Soviet Ukraine's Commissar of Foreign Affairs.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.