660C.116/164: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Poland (Cudahy)
18. Your 21, March 19, 5 p.m.11 Department does not understand reply of Polish Government as summarized in your telegram and consequently is not able to issue you further instructions pending the receipt of full text of Polish note and of any memorandum you may have left with Minister for Foreign Affairs together with memorandum of your conversation with him. Please forward them immediately if you have not already done so.
With reference to your confidential comments, Department would greatly regret if the Polish Government has misinterpreted the spirit of the representations which you were instructed to make. The second, third, and fourth paragraphs of the Department’s telegraphic instruction set forth the general foreign trade policy being pursued by this Government with a view to enlisting the sympathetic and valuable cooperation of the Polish Government in the promotion of a policy which has already won the support of the majority of the countries of the world. It was not the purpose of this exposition to take the Polish Government to task for its commercial policy, but to invite it to cooperate at once, or as soon as it is in a position to do so, with the United States and other countries in the pursuit of a broad commercial policy calculated to bring about a world wide increase in international trade.
With respect to the specific question of American-Polish trade, this Government earnestly desires, as stated in the Department’s telegram, to generalize fully to Poland all concessions made in reciprocal trade agreements with a view to affording to Poland equality of trade opportunity and trade treatment thereby making available increased markets for Polish goods in the United States. The American Government, consequently, views with favor the increase of Polish exports to this country. It was for the purpose of enabling this Government to generalize to Poland concessions accorded other countries that you [Page 639] were instructed to ascertain the attitude of the Polish Government with respect to American trade, since it would be difficult for this Government to justify the generalization of tariff reductions to Poland if the Polish Government were pursuing a policy or engaging in acts designed to divert to other countries imports formerly obtained from the United States.
You are authorized to express the foregoing as your personal opinion in any informal conversations which you may have with appropriate Polish officials. In this connection it is suggested that the Embassy study carefully our commercial policy as set forth in press releases, et cetera, forwarded from time to time by the Department.