882.01/86
Memorandum by the Assistant Chief of the Division of European Affairs (Nielsen)
When Mr. Wankowicz called this afternoon to discuss a number of matters he took occasion to refer to a conversation we had had on July 28, 193749 (882.01/84), in the course of which he had stated that his Embassy had reported to Warsaw two conversations (between the Secretary and the Polish Ambassador, and between Mr. Robert F. Kelley and Mr. Wankowicz)50 with regard to Liberia. The Embassy very recently had obtained from the Polish Foreign Office “a reaction” which contained information which might be of interest to the American Government.
Mr. Wankowicz then stated that there had been published in the Pittsburgh Courier of July 15, 1937, and copied by certain British newspapers, an article to the effect that Poland had approached the League of Nations with the suggestion or request that Poland be given Liberia as a mandate, thus contributing to a solution of the Polish Government’s long-standing emigration problem. When this story came to the attention of his Government it instructed the Polish Consul at Monrovia to address to the Liberian Government a written, categorical denial. This the Polish Consul has done.
[Page 829]In conclusion Mr. Wankowicz said that he was reminded of the story of a Pole who fell in with a clairvoyant while on a business trip and who was persuaded by the latter to listen to a reading. When the reading was concluded the business man paid much more than the fee demanded by the clairvoyant, explaining that the latter had given him a most excellent idea which otherwise never would have entered his mind. “So it is with the idea attributed to Poland by the Pittsburgh newspaper,” said Mr. Wankowicz with a smile. “I think it an excellent idea but we ourselves never even thought of it, much less discussed or advanced it.”