860C.51/1506
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Acting Secretary of State
The Polish Ambassador called to see me this afternoon at my request.
I told the Ambassador that the President had informed me that in view of the request of the Polish Government he was willing to agree to the allocation of another two and one-half millions for expenses of the Polish Government. I stated that the President wished me further to say that he felt that expenditures from this sum by the Polish Government should be definitely limited to absolute necessities, and that anything in the nature of extravagance should be avoided. The President also wished me to say that he would like to know how long the Polish Government believed that the sum now allocated would last in the light of the specific request of the President above indicated.
The Ambassador stated that he was very grateful for this decision of the President, but that it was very difficult for him to give any clear cut, specific budget which would show the time that the funds now allocated would last. He said that the expenditures of Polish official agents in the United States and in the Western Hemisphere represented a very small percentage of the expenses of the Polish Government, that by far the greater portion would be spent in subversive activities in former Poland, and that the expenditures made for this kind of activity might obviously be far greater one month than they would be the next. He promised, however, to do the best he could to let me have this statement requested by the President next week.85
- Ambassador Ciechanowski furnished the desired statement to Under Secretary of State Welles in a letter of October 16. Herein the Ambassador explained the expenditures for the purposes of the Polish war efforts to which this second installment of funds would be allocated. He estimated that this installment would suffice for a period of three months. (860C.51/1507)↩