860C.48/741: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Standley) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 5—5:55 p.m.]
241. Department’s June 13 [11] to Kuibyshev. I outlined to Molotov the Polish evacuation project and expressed the earnest hope of my Government that the Soviet authorities would permit the evacuation of the Polish women and children in question, basing my action on the views of my Government that these women and children could be taken care of more easily in a country in which actual hostilities were not in progress and on the fact that their removal from the Soviet Union would relieve that country of the necessity of feeding and caring for them.
Molotov stated that this was not a simple question of evacuation, which would be a small matter, but a fundamental problem affecting the basic relations between Poland and the Soviet Union. He said [Page 158] that if this group had been evacuated along with the first group10 the question might have been satisfactorily disposed of, although this was doubtful as there were always difficulties where Poles are concerned. He continued that a second evacuation might well cause added difficulties and instability among the Poles in the Soviet Union and hostile comment with reference to the Soviet Union among those Poles in German-occupied Poland and the world in general since it would surely be said that the Soviet Union was unable to care for and feed the Poles in question and therefore had to send them to Africa. He stated that he had recommended to Sikorski during his recent visit to London11 that an endeavor be made to improve the situation of the Poles in the Soviet Union but he did not enlarge to me upon how this should be done. He stated, however, that the Soviet Government could and would feed the Poles. He said that he would inform his Government of our interest in the matter.
Molotov later took occasion to refer to the general Polish question with a certain animosity, stating in effect: “There is always trouble whenever Polish questions arise”, since there are entirely too many contradictory elements concerned in Polish politics.
Certain of these elements, he stated, are carrying on policies hostile to the Soviet Union, in contradiction to the policies of the Polish Government in London and even the most vigorous measures failed to subordinate these elements to Soviet law. Other elements desire and try to foster friendly relations with the Soviet Government. In general, however, it is impossible to reconcile the two groups.
I left with the impression, similar to that received when I last discussed Polish matters with Vyshinski, that the Soviet Government takes a purely political view of this entire question and is not guided by considerations of humanity and that it is displeased, even irritated, by the interest of any other power in matters pertaining to Soviet-Polish relations.
- Admiral Standley, while en route to his post in Moscow, had seen this group, consisting of a Polish Army unit, their families and orphaned children, living in Tehran under disheartening conditions. (William H. Standley and Arthur A. Ageton, Admiral Ambassador to Russia (Chicago, 1955), pp. 106 and 260.)↩
- In May and June 1942.↩