that the £470,000,000 worth of help from UNRRA, largely supplied by America, was four times the budget of the Government for 1946, and that without continued help from America the economic situation here will become desperate. There is no more patriotic people in the world than the Polish people. None would depart and those abroad would return, if their country were not ruled by a totalitarian regime differing only in theory and economic program from the Nazi regime which occupied Poland for five years. I watch the human parade on the streets from the window of a kawiarnia, sipping ersatz coffee and eating zakonska. They slouch by, bundled up against the bitter winter weather. Every fourth man is in uniform, and there is one or more on every street corner. They are still trigger-happy ; there is shooting on the streets nearly every night, though not nearly as much as in months past. These people on the streets are not starving ; their average diet is around 2.000 calories, but they are not fed the amount or quality of food they need to do the gigantic job of rebuilding Poland. But most important of all, they are filled with bitterness and hatred-hatred of their Government, hatred of the Russians and the Germans. When I talked to my waiter, or any Pole,-his eyes light up when he learns I am an American. I am a friend. Even though my Government agreed to the atrocious Yalta and Pots dam agreements and failed to enforce them, every American, and every Briton, is a friend-the representatives of the nations that are their only hope of eventual independence. I feel ashamed that my Government has not done more to help them. The PPR and the PPS both claim a party membership of 600,000. (The PSL claims 700,000). But while I found many PPS members, among all the Poles of all classes to whom I talked, not one admitted PPR membership except one porter in the Hotel Grand in Lodz. (Most Communists have Government jobs). The Poles are not afraid of their native Stalinists, but they live in dread of the Russians. The mood of the people, the political and economic trends, the behaviour of the bureaucrats, the - speeches and slogans, the whole character of Warsaw under this puppet government, 36 BibliotecaGino Bianco
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