701.60C61/36: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Standley) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 3—10:35 a.m.]
667. My 640, July 25, 4 p.m. The Polish Chargé d’Affaires has furnished the British and American Embassies with a long memorandum35 dealing with the arrest of the Polish relief delegates. This memorandum which is being forwarded by airmail states that in addition to the 8 “diplomatic delegates” who were arrested and later released, over 150 members of the Polish delegation are still under detention and are charged with hostile action vis-à-vis the Soviet Union, counterrevolutionary activities and espionage. The memorandum concludes with a statement to the effect that since the Polish Government does not have sufficient influence to ameliorate this situation, it is only by an energetic intercession on the part of the Governments of the United States and Great Britain that the Soviet Government can be effectively prevented from “committing actions which are so harmful to the common cause and so unjust toward the Polish population in the USSR.”
[Page 167]The Embassy informed the Chargé that it would be unable to take any action in the matter without instruction from its Government and offered the suggestion that the Polish Ambassador in Washington discuss the matter with the State Department.
The British Ambassador36 informs me that on July 30 on instruction from his Government he discussed with Vyshinski the question of the Polish delegations and energetically interceded on their behalf and that although Vyshinski enumerated instances of espionage and hostility toward the Soviet Union on the part of various delegates he accepted Clark Kerr’s intervention in apparent good graces.