860C.20/92: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 12—3:38 a.m.]
1906. For the President, the Secretary, and Under Secretary. The Polish Ambassador informed me yesterday that he had addressed a letter to Molotov on November 1st to the effect that in order to [Page 262] create a favorable atmosphere for General Sikorski’s impending visit to the Soviet Union it would be desirable for the Soviet Government: (1) to make effective the terms of the amnesty of July 30, 1941, by releasing all Polish prisoners and granting them after their release the right to work and to obtain food; (2) to incorporate into the new Polish military units being organized in the Soviet Union all Polish males of military age, particularly those who since the granting of the amnesty have been put into labor battalions created by the Soviet Government; (3) as the Soviet authorities admit their inability to feed and arm any additional Polish military forces that may be created to consent to such forces being sent to an area where Great Britain would be in a position to arm and feed them; and (4) to permit from 15 to 20,000 of the Polish forces to leave the Soviet Union for the purpose of proceeding to Great Britain and Egypt.
The Ambassador said that up to the present he has received no reply to his communication.23
- General Sikorski had arrived in Cairo on November 6, 1941. Ambassador Biddle reported in Polish Series telegram No. 42, November 7, 1941, that the Polish Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs told him that “renewed efforts are now being made to obtain a definite acceptance” of the Polish desires “and Sikorski will await a more favorable reply before proceeding.” (860C.20/88)↩