World Notes POLAND

For months trade union leader Lech Walesa has been accusing Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki of too much haste in economic reform and too little urgency in ridding the government of onetime Communists. With his eye on the presidency, currently held by General Wojciech Jaruzelski, Walesa has also been urging that elections scheduled for next spring be held earlier.

Mazowiecki, whose refusal to accommodate the testy Nobel laureate caused a deep rift within Solidarity, last week went most of the way toward meeting Walesa's demands. In a major Cabinet reshuffle he dismissed three prominent former Communists and two other non-Solidarity ministers. The major casualties were Interior Minister Czeslaw Kiszczak, who interned thousands of Solidarity activists during the martial-law crackdown in 1981, and Florian Siwicki, Defense Minister since 1983.

Mazowiecki may be hoping that, by removing the issues, he can demonstrate that the trade unionist's presidential bid is firmly rooted in personal ambition. He might be hoping as well that, in return for a crack at the country's top job, Walesa will allow the government to get on with governing.