POLAND: Carnations

When Polish Premier Josef Cyrankiewicz got home from Moscow last week, fellow officials were waiting at the station. They thrust a bouquet of red carnations into his hands the moment the train screeched to a stop. . .The red posies were justified. Moscow had promised Cyrankiewicz a dazzling price for Poland's abstention from the Marshall Plan: a five year, billion-dollar trade agreement—plus a $450 million credit (the largest ever granted by the Soviet Union) and immediate delivery of 200,000 tons of Soviet grain.

Close up, the deal looked even better. The Russians promised...

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