760F.62/277: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Bullitt) to the Secretary of State
[Received 8:05 p.m.]
807. The Polish Ambassador Lukasiewicz, who returned yesterday from Warsaw, stated to me that without question Poland would declare war immediately on the Soviet Union if the Soviet Union should attempt to send troops across Polish territory to support Czechoslovakia. He stated that if Soviet airplanes should cross Polish territory en route to Czechoslovakia they would be attacked at once by Polish planes. He stated that there was a considerable concentration of Polish planes close to the Polish-Rumanian frontier for the specific purpose of attacking Russian planes attempting to cross in this neighborhood.
The Polish Ambassador went on to say that if Russian troops should attempt to cross Rumania en route to Czechoslovakia he was certain that the Rumanian Government would declare war at once on the Soviet Union (see my telegram No. 773, May 16, 5 p.m.) and that Poland would declare war simultaneously on the Soviet Union in accordance with the Polish-Rumanian alliance.46 He added that if Soviet planes should attempt to cross Rumania it might be impossible [Page 508] for the Rumanian air force to stop them; but that it was not excluded that the Polish air force would send sufficient planes to Rumanian territory to assist the Rumanians in attacking Russian planes which might attempt to cross Rumanian territory.
It seems fairly clear therefore that Bonnet’s prediction is well founded that an attempt by the Soviet Union to bring aid to Czechoslovakia would result in declarations of war by both Poland and Rumania.
My feeling with regard to the gravity of the present situation has not diminished.
- Treaty of mutual guarantee, signed January 15, 1931, League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. cxv, p. 171.↩