740.0011 European War 1939/16122: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 26—12:10 a.m.]
1828. The Polish Ambassador told me this morning that in a lengthy conversation with Molotov day before yesterday the latter had informed him that the Soviet authorities would not be able to keep their engagement to feed the Polish military forces in process of being constituted in the Soviet Union beyond the 44,000 who have already been enrolled. The Ambassador said that he had protested to Molotov at the sending of 35,000 additional Polish soldiers to Tashkent and Bukhara where they had been distributed among the population and put to work instead of being enrolled in camps as agreed upon and as had been done with the first 44,000 and that Molotov had replied that this action had been necessary due to the inability of the Soviet authorities to either feed or arm these men.
Molotov also told the Ambassador that no further arms or equipment of any kind could be furnished by the Soviet authorities over and above that supplied to the one division already organized. He made it clear to the Ambassador that tanks and planes even for this division as well as for other Polish forces must come from sources other than the Soviet Union but that food on a strict ration basis would be provided for the 44,000 men now enrolled in camps. The Ambassador expressed the opinion to me that even these provisions would not be furnished much longer and that although the compensation for the Polish officers and men which the Soviet Government had engaged itself to pay had been forthcoming up to and including the month of September, no compensation had been forthcoming for October despite repeated requests.
The Ambassador requested me to report the foregoing to the Department and at the same time to transmit his request that foods as well as armament be provided by the United States for the Polish forces in the Soviet Union.