ZYGMUNT ZULAWSKI'S SECOND SPEECH IN THE PARLIAMENT IN WARSAW, February 18th, 1947. Approval of the minutes of the Session of February 8th is equivalent to approval of the Parliamentary Report in which my speech was distorted by the deletion of a whole number of sentences. Mr. Speaker whom I approached on the matter, explained to me that it was he who ordered these passages to be deleted, as my speech seemed to him to have been "inciting to violence." There is no doubt that, according to the old Parliamentary rules as well as to the rules of the National Council of the Homeland the Speaker is entitled to delete certain words, but only if they run counter to the law and if they offend representatives of other States, public morality or private persons. But, even in such cases, he should do so not in secret, but openly explaining to this House what it was which constituted an infraction of the law, as is laid down by the last paragraph of Article 3 of our Constitution. However, my speech, which by the way was not interrupted by Mr. Speaker, who did not rule me out, cannot possibly be construed as contrary to Parliamentary custom or as offending either against some person or some provision of the law. What, in the deleted passages, could there be which could be regarded as" inciting to violence"? I described the elections inCracow, which Mr.Speaker did not see, but which I did see. I repeated two conversations concerning the fairness of the elections, one with an old friend of mine and another with one of the present high State officials. I made remarks about the former leaders of the W.R.N., about the celebrations of the electoral victory, about the need for control of all public acts and particularly elections and, finally, about the need for counteracting the development of forest bands which are a misfortune for this country and which render difficult any sensible and reasonable struggle for the rult of law in Poland,-with which I hope that Mr. Speaker will agree. Finally, complaining about the present ,muzzling of thought and speech in Poland, I said that all these beautiful plans and assurances expressed in the Government's statement have not the slightest significance for me as long as there can be no completely free discussion and public exchange of arguments about the Government's policy and tactics. 56 Biblioteca Gino Bianco
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