File No. 861.48/196
The Chargé in France (Bliss) to the Secretary of State
[Received 7.30 p. m.]
1554. Referring to the Embassy’s No. 1526, 11th.1 Foreign Office informs me reply of President of French Republic will be delivered to the President by French Ambassador. Following is translation copy of this reply as furnished me by Foreign Office:2
Excellency: You have been good enough to ask me to draw the attention of the Government of the Republic to the situation in which the Polish population finds itself as a consequence of the insufficiency of food supplies. Moved by so much suffering, you have suggested submitting to a fresh examination the possibility and the means of provisioning Poland, and you have offered the Federal Government’s friendly good offices in the negotiations which you propose that the belligerent governments should undertake on the subject, it being understood that any project considered could not be adapted to any other purpose than that of provisioning the unfortunate inhabitants of Poland.
I need not assure Your Excellency of the interest which the Government of the Republic takes in the Polish people. The sufferings which the lack of foodstuffs inflicts upon the Polish populations arouse all the more sympathy and pity in France as we ourselves have to deplore similar sufferings among the French populations in our territory still occupied by the enemy. For this reason the Government of the Republic, in concert with its allies, has endeavored to organize such relief for Poland as Your Excellency has in mind, that is to say, in such a manner as to benefit the Poles alone without being diverted to the profit of the occupying power.
I regret to state that all the efforts made in that direction have been in vain, Germany and Austria having refused to give the necessary guarantees. Quite recently the Allied Governments, as Your Excellency is aware, proposed to Germany, through the American Government as intermediary, to allow free passage for all the products needed to complete the quantities of them indispensable for provisioning the territories now occupied, if, on their part, the German and Austro-Hungarian Governments would agree to reserve to the populations of those different territories the entire produce of their soil and all the stocks in possession of native inhabitants of that region. Moreover, the Allied Governments demanded, as is equitable, that the products thus reserved should be subject to free exchange between the different invaded territories, which could thus reciprocally supply each other, with the help of the complementary [Page 909] quantities imported through consent of the Allies, without asking anything of the enemy governments. The Allied Governments proposed, in addition, that neutral persons chosen by Your Excellency should hare the necessary authority to control the distribution of the food and, as occasion might arise, to transfer supplementary stocks from one invaded territory to another. Now the German Government has just announced that it is in a position to assure the provisioning of Poland and that any further negotiation on the subject would be purposeless. The Austrian Government, some time ago, made a similar reply with regard to Serbia. This reply of the German Government is in absolute contradiction with the lamentable situation which occasioned Your Excellency’s generous appeal, but it shows clearly that the efforts of the Allied Governments in this matter are encountering a manifest ill will which renders them powerless to achieve their object.
The Government of the Republic, as well as its allies, considers that it has done everything possible for the provisioning of Poland. Only a fresh effort on the part of Your Excellency and of the Federal Government addressed to the German and Austro-Hungarian Governments could possibly be efficacious in opening the way to an agreement which would give satisfaction to the needs of the Polish populations. Your Excellency may rest assured that France will always be happy to second attempts of this kind to the full extent compatible with military necessities and with the very legitimate solicitude for assuring at the same time to the unfortunate populations of the French territories occupied by the enemy, as well as to the Belgian populations, an amelioration of the deplorable situation in which they are likewise placed.
I beg [etc.]
Raymond Poincaré