860c.4016/104: Telegram
The Commission to Negotiate Peace to the Acting Secretary of State
[Received 10.03 p.m.]
2923. Your 2438, June 26, 6 p.m.33 Gibson has made a conscientious but necessarily brief inquiry into events at Vilna, Lida, Lemberg and a number of other places. He finds, however, that the responsibility of these events is not always easy to place with entire justice; that the causes are often obscure and involve economic, social and political forces. He does not feel that he or anyone else can [Page 773] honestly undertake to give an opinion upon these events based upon such investigations as he can make while attending to other duties. He has therefore asked that a commission be appointed to devote its entire attention for as long a period as may be necessary to investigation of the relations between the Poles and Jews. This, of course, will involve a careful investigation of the various events complained of not only to establish the exact truth as to what has happened but to discover as accurately as may be the causes behind these events with a view to seeking a remedy for the situation, which he considers very bad and fraught with serious danger for the future.
The President has appointed a commission composed of Mr. Henry Morgenthau, Mr. Homer Johnson and Brigadier General Jadwin who will proceed to Poland within a short time to study the whole question with a view to rendering constructive service to both the Polish State and the Jewish community. Inasmuch as this commission is about to take up its duties Gibson feels that any fragmentary investigations that he could make would serve no useful purpose and the Mission holds the same view. Lansing.
- Not printed.↩