860C.48/759
The Polish Ambassador (Ciechanowski) to the Secretary of State
Dear Mr. Secretary: I have the honor to refer to my conversation with you on Friday last, July 31st,39 and inform you that I have been advised by cable from Count Raczyński, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland, about the latest developments in Polish-Soviet relations. The situation appears to have somewhat eased since my conversation with you took place.
Count Raczyński informs me that the Soviet Government has agreed to the evacuation of three divisions of Polish troops, totalling 44,000 men, together with their families including children up to an additional figure of 26,000. This evacuation will take about three weeks’ time.
Count Raczyński also informs me that of the arrested officials and functionaries employed by the Embassy for distribution of relief supplies to Polish deportees, six of those with diplomatic status have been released from prison and ordered to leave Soviet Russian territory. He notes that the Dean of the Diplomatic Corps in Soviet Russia40 had supported the Polish Government’s request for liberation of our functionaries.
This improvement however has not solved the main difficulty because over 120 Polish officials and delegates working on the distribution of relief supplies have been arrested, and their arrest has stopped the entire work of distribution of these supplies. In a note and Aide-Mémoire presented on July 27th by the Soviet authorities to Minister Sokolnicki, the Polish Chargé d’Affaires, the Soviet Government states its refusal to allow the reactivation of the various Polish distributing centers for relief which had been functioning under the supervision of the Polish Embassy. At the same time it is stated in the note that it is not the intention of the Soviet Government to prevent the Polish Embassy from taking care of Polish citizens.
Count Raczyński informs me that on the 29th of July he received a note from Ambassador Bogomolow in London, in reply to Minister Raczyński’s note of the 11th of July. This note mainly repeats statements previously made by the Soviet Government to Minister Sokolnicki, our Chargé d’Affaires in the USSR. Count Raczyński [Page 169] considers this note as unsatisfactory and has advised Ambassador Bogomolow against bringing the conflict to a crisis and against any attempt at organizing a trial of the arrested Polish Embassy functionaries. He has upheld all the demands which he had previously made on behalf of the Polish Government and stated that the continuation of good mutual relations must depend on the way and the spirit in which they are mutually handled, rather than on statements of a general character.
Regardless of the evacuation from Russia of the additional three Polish divisions, the Polish Government has requested that it should be authorized to maintain its recruiting centers in order to renew its recruiting activities in the future.
As you will see from the above, there appears to be a welcome easing of the tension in Polish-Soviet relations. I venture to think that this tendency towards the improvement of these relations might actually increase the prospects of success of the kind of intervention which we discussed last Friday,41 rather than discourage it. The President might perhaps consider it possible to express his appreciation to Premier Stalin regarding the latter’s decision to evacuate three more divisions of the Polish Armed Forces, together with their families and children, and to express his concern about the information regarding the interruption of the distribution by the Polish Embassy in Kuybishev to the Polish population at present in Russia of relief supplies so urgently required by them, which have been sent from the United States under very difficult circumstances of transport and at great cost.
I should regard it as a great favor if you would very kindly take these additional facts into consideration and let me know what you have decided to do in the matter.
I am [etc.]