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| 7. VTOHLD COMMUNISM and bread* The clergy and intellectuals have been particular victims of the purge. Thus, a leaderless people have been the victims of forced soviet- ization, and their children have been made the victims of mass Indoctrination To justify these conditions in the United States, Communists have such foreign language publications as the Estonian Uis Ilm, the Latvian Amerikas La tweet is. and the Lithuanian Laisve and Vilnis* The latter two claim a combined circulation of 40,000. Among the front organizations which seek to win Lithuanian Americans to the Soviet viewpoint are the Oommittee to Aid Lithuania (chairman, Anthony Bimba), the Democratic American Lithuanian Council, the Lithuanian Workers' Literary Association, and the Lithuanian Fine Arts League, The Polish situation has been better publicized and can be summarized briefly. The saga of Poland's heroic resistance during and after the German attack is glorious, yet the Soviet Union aided in the partition of prostrate Poland and then imposed the Curzon Line as her Eastern boundary. Much of Poland's wealth and several of her important cities lie on the Soviet side of the boundary. More important than territorial problems, however, is the imposition of a puppet government and the imprisoning of the sixteen underground leaders who were lured to Moscow. Even the hardy statesmen at Yalta could not stomach the Lublin government and a pledge was given that a democratic Poland would be restored within its new boundaries. This pledge was not fulfilled, A few members of the London Government were appointed to minor positions, but the essential character of the regime was not altered. Communists, many of them Russian, have all the important posts* This is the government which denounced the Vatican Concordat, after first flaunting its provisions by the deportation of the Archbishop of Vilna, the Bishop of Luck, and the arrest of the Vicar-General of Lublin, In spite of the urgent plea of forty-eight prominent liberals to President Truman before the Potsdam Conference (New Leader. July 21, 1945), little has been done. Relief is still in Russian hands. A few correspondents' were permitted to send heavily censored dispatches, but the NKVD still rules supreme. Because of the strong political influence of Polish Americans, con- sistent efforts have been made by American Communists to win them over. Their most prominent papers are Glos Ludewy and Nasz Svviat, published in Detroit* The outstanding pro-Communist spokesman is Leo Krzycki, vice-president of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, president of the American Slav Congress, and president of the American Polish Labor Council. In the latter capacity, he claims to speak for 600,000 Polish trade unionists, but his actual following is about one-sixth of that number. Nevertheless, the position gives him an opportunity to deceive the unsophisticated public, as is witnessed by his notorious press conference during the San Francisco Conference* It is further believed that he had a definite voice in determining the allocation of half «f the $300,000 which was offered by the C.I* 0. for Polish relief, Receipt of this fond was acknowledged by Pojjpress News in the usual Communist jargon, Polpress News, as is noted in Appendix I, is the pro- paganda outlet for the liiblin government* It receives regular substantial subsidies from Moscow. Leaders of Polish American Communism are: Dr. Abraham Pensik; Boleslow Gebert; Ambassador Oscar Lange; and Boleslaw Antoni Gronowicz, |