740.0011 European War 1939/19463: Telegram
The Chargé in the Soviet Union ( Thurston ) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 14—7:25 p.m.]
137. Embassy’s 2041, December 11, [1941,] 4 p.m.10 In a recent conversation concerning the treatment which is being accorded to Polish nationals by the Soviet authorities, the First Secretary of the Polish Embassy stated to Dickerson11 that in practice great difficulty was [Page 106] being experienced by the Embassy in obtaining permission for any Pole to leave the Soviet Union and that only in individual instances, after prolonged negotiation, had such permission been obtained.
As regards the 25,000 Polish troops which the Soviets had agreed in principle to permit to leave, both the informant and a member of the British Embassy state that while the Soviet authorities have by no means refused to carry out the commitments made, in actual fact no progress has been made toward its execution since various technical and other difficulties have been raised, causing deadlock up until the present time.
- Foreign Relations, 1941, vol. i, p. 267.↩
- Charles E. Dickerson, Jr., First Secretary of Embassy in the Soviet Union, at Kuibyshev.↩