860C.48/731: Telegram.
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Standley)
296. The Government of Poland has requested our assistance in evacuating some thousands of Polish children and their mothers from the Soviet Union, where it is understood they are facing starvation, to some point where they can be properly cared for until it has become possible for them to proceed to Poland.
With the President’s approval we have agreed to assist the Government of Poland in its efforts to evacuate this group to Iran and, as soon as all other necessary arrangements have been completed, to assist in transporting them from there to some other country, probably South Africa. The American Red Cross has agreed to assist the Polish Red Cross in making arrangements for caring for this group while in transit and after it has arrived in the country where it can find a haven for the duration of the war. Before any of the details of the proposed plan can be worked out, it will of course be necessary to obtain the permission of the Soviet authorities for the group to leave the Soviet Union. The Polish Ambassador, according to your no. 480 of June 3, 1 p.m., is already having difficulty in this respect.
At the first favorable opportunity, in your discretion, please express to the Soviet authorities the earnest hope of this Government that the Soviet Government will accede to the request of the Government of [Page 153] Poland to permit a group of some 10,000 Polish children and their mothers to leave the Soviet Union, basing your action on the view of this Government that these children and their mothers can be more easily cared for in a country in which actual fighting is not at present in progress.
The working out of details in connection with the selection of those to be evacuated, their transportation, and care while en route to the Iranian frontier would be undertaken as soon as permission for the departure of the group has been granted by the Soviet authorities. It is felt that representatives of the Embassy could very effectively assist in this respect representatives of the Polish Government in the Soviet Union and representatives of the Polish and American Red Cross.