Office of the Historian

740.00111A Recruiting/30a: Telegram

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

Washington, October 2, 1939—9 p.m.

1136. For Biddle.58 Today’s Washington Post carries a story by Taylor Henry of the Associated Press in which Sikorski is quoted as having stated that the Polish Government hopes to raise from 8 to 10 divisions of Poles of from 15,000 to 20,000 men each in Canada and the United States to fight against Germany.

It is suggested that you inform the appropriate Polish officials that the publication of statements of this character tends to create an unfortunate impression in this country, pointing out to them at the same time the provisions of the President’s Proclamation of neutrality [Page 698] relating to the enlisting of soldiers, marines or seamen in the United States into the service of a belligerent.

Hull
  1. Anthony J. Drexel Biddle, Jr., Ambassador to Poland, with the Polish Government in exile temporarily in France.↩