Polish churches still channel aid

Polish churches remain free to distribute aid received from Western churches, says a National Council of Churches relief officer who recently returned from a visit to Poland.

Monitor contributor Tracy Early reports that Stanley Mitton of the NCC agency Church World Service said he accompanied Danish church officials who took truckloads of aid to a Polish port and then to Warsaw.

Though Poles are not starving, he said, they are suffering ''great shortages'' and expect a ''rough winter.''

Mr. Mitton said the Polish churches concentrate on getting aid to the most vulnerable sectors of the population, including residents of homes for children, the elderly, and the handicapped.

After a brief suspension of aid when martial law was first imposed, Church World Service is resuming shipments and has appealed to NCC member churches and others for $1 million. This aid is being sent in coordination with efforts by other church agencies in the United States and Western Europe.

''We're satisfied the churches are being allowed a free hand,'' Mitton said.