760C.62/871: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Bullitt) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 18—6:03 p.m.]
1521. Daladier said to me today that when Bonnet had reported to him the reaction of the Polish Ambassador in Paris to the proposal of the Soviet Government for bringing aid to Poland in case of a German attack on Poland he had been shocked and angered by the violence of the Polish Ambassador’s negative reaction.
Before Bonnet had spoken to Lukasiewicz he had advised Bonnet not to take the matter up with him but to have it taken up with Smigly-Rydz by the French Military Attaché in Warsaw. He had now sent the French Military Attaché to talk to Smigly-Rydz about the proposal. He considered it utter folly for the Poles to turn down a Russian proposal for genuine military assistance. He understood the reluctance of the Poles to have the Red Army enter the territory of Poland but as soon as Poland should have been invaded by the German armies the Polish Government certainly would be glad to take assistance from anyone who could bring assistance.
He would be glad to send two French divisions to Poland and he was certain that he could get a British division as well for Poland so that the support would be not exclusively Russian but international.
[Page 226]Moreover he could get the most absolute guarantees from the Soviet Government for the eventual evacuation of Polish territory and France and Great Britain would give absolute guarantees of those guarantees.
Voroshilov had struck the heart of the question when he had said to the British and French negotiators that the Soviet Army was ready to march against Germany but that the only practical lines of passage were by way of Vilna against East Prussia and by way of Lwow (Lemberg) to the south.
The Soviet Government would not send airplanes and tanks unaccompanied by other troops to the assistance of Poland. He, Daladier, considered that the Soviet position was reasonable. An army without airplanes was blind and without tanks was relatively disarmed. Daladier concluded by saying that if the Poles should reject this offer of Russian assistance he would not send a single French peasant to fight in defense of Poland.
I take this statement seriously but not too seriously although he repeated it three times. He was angry at the Polish Ambassador in Paris and inclined to overstate.