Office of the Historian

740.0011 European War 1939/362: Telegram

The Ambassador in France (Bullitt) to the Secretary of State

Paris, September 17, 1939—6 p.m.
[Received September 17—4:35 p.m.]

2019. The Polish Ambassador has just informed me that he has received from Beck44 the text of an official note to be presented to the French Government45 in which it is stated that Soviet troops had crossed the Polish frontier at a number of points and that this action of the Soviet Union constitutes a case of flagrant aggression. A similar note has already been sent to the Rumanian Government and will be presented at once to the British Government.

I asked the Polish Ambassador what action if any Rumania, which has an alliance which pledges Rumania to give immediate military assistance to Poland in case of Soviet attack, intended to take. The Polish Ambassador replied that the only likely action of the Rumanians would be to tremble. There was not much encouragement to Rumania to resist anyone after the shocking manner in which France and England had failed to assist Poland.

Bullitt
  1. Józef Beck, Polish Minister for Foreign Affairs.↩
  2. Presented September 18, 1939, 10:30 p.m.; The Polish White Book, Official Documents Concerning Polish-German and Polish-Soviet Relations, 1988–1939 (London, Hutchinson and Co., n. d.), doc. No. 177, p. 190.↩