Polish Composer Gets Three Years

based upon A.F.P. report On February 19th, a Warsaw court sentenced Janusz Szpotanski, the composer of the satirical opera, Those Who Keep Quiet and Those Who Chatter, to three years in prison, At the end of a secret trial, Mr. Szpotanski, aged 34, was found Guilty of "spreading false informetion on political, economic and social relations in Poland of a nature to harm the authority and prestige of the stote", Mr. Szpotenski was also ordered to pay the costs, The opera satirised Warsew's officials and bureaucrats — p-rty and state alike, Among the 16 witness at the trial was Nina Karsow, recently sentenced to three years' gaol for "collecting documents hostile to People's Poland," To those who had great hopes-of Poland democratising itself after the "October. Revolution" of 1956, these incidents must be extremely disanpointing, It is very clear that genuine socialist democracy will only come to the countries of the Soviet.bloc after organs h-ve been created which are capable of leading a struggle against the bureaucrats who have political control, In the meantime it is the duty of every communist end socialist to protest against these trials, It is to be hoped that the British Commue nist Party, which did protest (be it rather mildly) egainst the recent trial of 3 Russian writers, will makes its disquiet known to the Polish authorities, If it fails to this, it will be understandable if many draw the conclusion that it only moves when there is a preat deal of publicity ebout one of these trials.