740.0011 European War 1939/12772: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 4—7:45 p.m.]
2844. For the President and Acting Secretary. My No. 2843, July 4, 10 p.m.83 Following is text of despatch dated today from Mr. Eden84 to the British Ambassador at Moscow.
“1. The Soviet Ambassador85 asked to see me this afternoon when he said that he had brought me a message from his Government. The Soviet Government had been considering their relations with Poland, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. They had taken the decision to give facilities to all three states to form national committees in the U.S.S.R. These committees would have facilities to form national military forces Polish, Czechoslovak and Yugoslav. The Soviet Government undertook to supply arms and equipment to these forces. It followed as a result of this that all Polish prisoners of war in Russian hands would be handed over to the Polish National Committee. Their number was nothing like as large as General Sikorski had told me; there were only 20,000. These forces would fight with the Russian armies against the German aggressor.
[Page 240]2. With regard to Poland, Soviet policy was to favor the establishment of an independent national Polish State. The boundaries of this state would correspond with ethnographical Poland. From this it might follow that certain districts and towns occupied by Russia in 1939 might be returned to Poland.
The form of internal government to be set up in Poland was in the view of the Soviet Government entirely a matter for the Poles themselves. If General Sikorski and his Government found these statements of policy acceptable the Soviet Government were prepared to make a treaty with him to form a common front against German aggression.
3. The Soviet Government were likewise in favor of the restoration of the independence of Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. The internal regime of these states also in their judgment was a matter for the peoples themselves.
4. I asked the Ambassador whether his Government proposed to make public this important declaration, for clearly it would have considerable effect both on the nationals of the states concerned and also on American opinion. The Ambassador said that he had no information yet as to his Government’s intentions in respect of publication but that he supposed that this was contemplated since the decision to recognize national committees had already been taken. I pressed him further for some definition of what he meant by ethnographical Poland and the Ambassador said that he felt that there would be no great difficulty in defining frontiers on this basis provided that there was good will on both sides.”