861.012/212a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Standley)
446. Various reports have been received by the Department to the effect that the Soviet authorities consider all Polish Jews, on the basis of the 1939 plebiscite,69 to be Soviet citizens and, therefore, refuse to permit these persons to receive Polish passports from the Polish authorities in the Soviet Union or to leave that country as Polish evacuees under the various evacuation plans already effected.
In order that the Department may be reliably informed as to these allegations please telegraph after making discreet investigation preferably from other than Polish sources, any pertinent information.
- Plebiscite of October 23, 1939, held under Soviet auspices in Polish territory occupied by the Soviet Union, following which the territory was annexed to the Soviet Union and provision was made for the acquisition of Soviet citizenship by the inhabitants. Poland Protested the plebiscite.↩