Commodities licensed for export to Poland in the 1st quarter 19621 Drop guide for glass-making machinery 1,903 Indicating, recording and/or controlling equipment, n.e.s. 28, 108 Industrial separators__ 1, 297 Ozone test chamber.. 3, 845 Physical properties testing and inspecting equipment, n.e.s. 822 Radiation thermometer, parts and accessories 1, 551 Rotary rock bits...... 4, 490 Spectra brightness spot meters and parts. 3,000 Aircraft engine parts... 7,398 Aircraft flight instruments. 5, 172 Aircraft heating air control valves. 5,000 Aircraft landing gear parts ___ 5, 965 Aircraft parts and accessories, n.e.s. 1, 294 Aircraft power units 3,016 Aircraft starting, lighting and ignition equipment.. Aircraft quick engine change materials (not engine parts). 1,033 5, 172 Automotive parts and accessories.. 9 Equipment for aircraft air conditioning system..... 10, 975 Steam turbine parts-_ 10, 720 Truck parts 6, 165 Other transportation equipment and farm machinery. VHF bridges and detectors (electrical testing instruments) with acces sories 2, 633 Other radio, TV and electronic equipment. 57 Hot rolled electrical steel sheets. * 161, 959 Molybdenite (molybdenum concentrate). * 132, 275 Marine diesel oil...... 8, 440 Total 893, 731 159th quarterly report (1st quarter 1962), as required under the Export Control Act of 1949 by the Sec retary of Commerce, to the President, the Senate and House of Representatives. For the manufacture of civilian rubber products. For the manufacture of transformers for measuring purposes. For use in incandescent bulbs and steel alloy production. Mrs. KELLY. My question should follow. Do you know if any other nation of the world has given that type of aid to Poland? He may confuse it with us or it may be confused with our aid. I am sure Italy or some other country did give a chemical plant. Of that I am sure. Mr. MONAGAN. Assuming that this surplus agricultural product is the only type of aid which we are giving to Poland at the present time, as I understand it, your position is that that aid should not be given, is that correct? In other words, we should not Mr. MIKOLAJCZYK. To this country, which I mentioned. Mr. MONAGAN. Without fulfillment of the conditions you have set forth here. And you don't believe that the fact that we may be furnishing food to the people of Poland is a helpful thing, either to the people of Poland or to the United States? Mr. MIKOLAJCZYK. Mr. Chairman, it is helpful to the Polish people, naturally. But if the help is monopolized by the Communist Party for their own purposes, then the problem is quite different. Mr. MONAGAN. Do you mean that the method of distribution of the food is monopolized by the Communists? Mr. MIKOLAJCZYK. May I explain, Mr. Chairman? For example, there used to be about $60 million in gifts given yearly by the American people directly to the Polish people. This way of giving help to the Polish people has been closed. Mr. MONAGAN. It seems to me there is a certain inconsistency there; that is, you want to have food come through CARE, let's say, or Caritas, or whatever the agency may be. You want it to come to the Polish people there, but you don't want it to come through a governmental program. Is that a correct statement of your position? Mr. MIKOLAJCZYK. The help used to come directly, man to man. It was an enormous help. When you mention, Mr. Chairman, CARE, for example, the amount of CARE parcels to Poland is restricted. And here is another thing. For every other country, when I want to send a food parcel by CARE, I go to CARE and pay $1 and give the address. But with Poland, the case is different. The Polish Communists say, "We have paid you Americans, by buying your grain surplus, therefore you cannot disturb our market" and therefore when I go to CARE to send a parcel to Poland, I have to pay $6. Mr. MONAGAN. I see that point. Am I correct in feeling that you think the distribution of the food through the Public Law 480, as we call it that is, the surplus agricultural products-is helpful to the people but you would like to use this as a way of getting the other programs in at the same time? Mr. MIKOLAJCZYK. If the food does come to Poland and it is known to help the Polish people and if it is not monopolized by the Communists for their purposes. Mr. MONAGAN. Don't the people of Poland know the source of this food that is coming in; don't they know it is coming from the U.S. Government? Mr. MIKOLAJCZYK. Very often it is not known, because in their propaganda the Communists say that the main support and the gifts that the Polish people get come from Soviet Russia. Poland has received in recent years about a half a billion dollars in help from America. The total amount since the end of the war-when we take into consideration UNRRA help, loans, the repayment to Poland of funds which were frozen here in the United States and so on, the total amount is about $2,200 million. I must say that the United States was not given moral credit for that help. I certainly don't want to exaggerate, but I am getting many letters from poor people in Poland who up until now had lived on the dutyfree private packages from their friends in America which have now been stopped. And they ask why they are being punished by being forced to pay the high cost of custom duties for gifts which used to be free. Mr. MONAGAN. You have said here, too, that there is a silent acceptance by us of the status quo in Central Europe. Certainly it has never been the position of this Government, that they have accepted this present situation as either a desirable or a proper position, as far as the captive nations are concerned. I think you will agree that at the moment there is nothing in the form of overt action that we could do, or probably anybody else could do, as far as liberation is concerned in these countries. Mr. MIKOLAJCZYK. Mr. Chairman, I have never believed in liberation by war. I have even been condemned by some Poles for such a view. But, nevertheless, I must say that there have been general statements about not conceding and agreeing to the status quo. But when it comes, for example, to a meeting of the Big Three, when it comes to other practices, active political actions, then there is no mention of the case of the countries behind the Iron Curtain, including Poland. It has been explained to me-we do not want to get into these things now. I am of the opinion that in the case of these countries-not because I am a Pole and I would like to see my nation regain its freedom-but I have lived in a country ruled by Communists, and I know what is the most dangerous kind of Communist propaganda: When they come to a man and say "We don't ask you to come with us; we are only asking you to be silent. And don't dream. The situation will never change because the West has already accepted the status quo, and you will have to wait maybe two or three generations if, indeed, ever you will be free." This kind of propaganda is killing the morale of the people. If you don't come out with active political statements every time, if you speak only about Berlin and not about the countries behind the Iron Curtain, it is interpreted as a silent recognition of the status quo in these countries. To keep up the spirit and morale of these people there is a common cause, and the common cause with you Americans, too. Silence about the fate of the people behind the Iron Curtain is a silent acceptance of the status quo. at Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. It seems to me we should look the heart of the whole question, with respect to what we may do about our policy toward Poland. You have said that the Communists' most effective argument is: Tell the people not to dream, that the West has already accepted the status quo. If we should terminate aid in all forms and have a total economic blockade, or if this country should be more restrictive than it presently is with respect to food or any other programs, would we not be doing something very damaging to the morale of the Polish people? In other words, I think we strongly agree with you, that we want to maintain that spark of independence, that interest in getting out from under the Communist yoke. If we cut what slim ties we have with the people, aren't we going to be doing damage to the cause, rather than to help them? Mr. MIKOLAJCZYK. Nobody even dreams that the liberation of our country-even when many of the people believe in it-will come through war. If liberation comes, it will come through the deterioration and fall of the Communist economic system. A general blockade will bring some sacrifices, but it will shift the day of liberation without war much further forward. Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. If we should get a meeting of your conditions, the entry of duty-free goods and so on, would this tend to prevent that day of reckoning, of bringing down the whole economic structure? Mr. MIKOLAJCZYK. Maybe we differ, Mr. Congressman. In the long range a general blockade will shorten the sufferings caused by Soviet occupation. I am quite sure that nothing will change for the worse now. The situation will remain as it is. In 2 years the whole Congress of the United States will vote to cut the help to Communistcontrolled countries anyhow. But what I am trying to say in brief is this: In a very modest way, and for a short time, because of the catastrophic agricultural situation in Soviet Russia, maybe some help, under certain conditions, is still possible. It was in January, 2 years ago, at the Agricultural Conference in Moscow, that Khrushchev said to his satellites: "Now, comrades, I have to tell you, you will not be supplied with food from Soviet Russia in the future and you will have to find it in the West." Therefore, being very realistic, I think, that under the conditions mentioned in my statement and these conditions are very modest-the Polish Communists would accept them. And when I say the possibilities for help will be temporary, it is because I don't believe that this opportunity will last very long. Mr. MONAGAN. One of the conditions that you make, or the desirable objectives that you state, is the granting of credits for farmers for agricultural equipment and so forth. Would that also not be something which would prevent the economy from collapsing? Would not that strengthen the economy? Mr. MIKOLAJCZYK. The Polish economy was saved this year due to the enterprise of the Polish farmers who resisted collectivization. The Communists say that 12.5 percent of the land in Poland is socialized. Yes, but 12.1 percent of this is the land of big estates which have been taken over by the Government and never divided among the peasants. Only 0.4 percent of the land of the small holders is in kolkhozes. Mr. MONAGAN. Collective farms. Mr. MIKOLAJCZYK. Yes. So 89 percent of the land is in the hands of the peasants. That shows how effective was the resistance of the Polish farmers against Communist collectivization. More, this year Polish farmers saved the national economy of Poland from disaster by their initiative. They produced a higher output. But, unfortunately, what happened? The Communists immediately came up with a 25-percent increase in land taxation, because, as they say, their income is too high and the people have too much money and run after industrial economic goods and other consumer goods. My proposition here shows the possibility of using American funds accumulated from previous grants or loans of grain sent to Poland for the purpose of helping this 89 percent of Polish farmers who are responsible for the economy of Polish agriculture. Mr. MONAGAN. Are you familiar Mr. MIKOLAJCZYK. They were not allowed, Mr. Chairman, to participate in the American credit for agricultural machinery. I have to be very frank. For example, some people here in the United States were advocating the use of accumulated American funds to restore the old castle in Warsaw. I have great admiration for old castles, but I must say I prefer, first, housing for the people. That is exactly what happened. The Communists answered, "We have a great need for housing. Why should we agree to the reinvestment of this American money in old Polish castles when we don't have housing for the people?" Mr. MONAGAN. What about the use of these funds for the construction of hospitals? Mr. MIKOLAJCZYK. I must say that as far as hospitals are concerned, I am always for the construction of hospitals. You know why? Because, as a group, the number of Communists is small and there are so many people in Poland who are non-Communists who will come to the hospital and use it. This is the only case where the Communists cannot make privileges for themselves; even though they will certainly very often accept people of their own party first. But these people would be exceptions. Building hospitals is a cause that I always advocate, with no regard for who rules the country. I differ, however, about help to libraries. Why? Books are the means which the Communist system uses to help poison the nation and to educate the younger generation for communism. I have been accused by Communists of inconsistency because I have said in public that Soviet Russia has to a large degree wiped out the illiteracy of the people. The fact is true. But the purpose was that people who know how to read will accept communism more readily because they have only Communist books to read. As to technical books, scientific books, and so forth, I must say that there is no lack of such books in Poland. The Government buys and provides an enormous amount of technical books, because they help the technical development of the Communist system and their economy. But you don't find other books in their libraries-yes, you find even some U.S. writers, but only if they help the Communists. I have recently seen a publication of the U.S. program for cultural exchange which describes the life of intellectuals in the United States. Surely such a book as this will be there in Communist libraries. Why? For example, this Quarterly writes about many things in very rude language. The Communists use rude language, it seems, and somebody wanted to show that American intellectuals are equal in using rude language. There are Poles in Poland who attack religious beliefs, Communists who attack the church. Somebody wanted to show that here in the United States the intellectuals are doing the same thing. But one thing in this Quarterly which made me really very sorry that such a book should be printed in the United States and sent to Poland for 87355-62-6 |