Office of the Historian

760C.61/993½

Memorandum, of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)

[Washington,] December 4, 1942.

The Prime Minister of Poland, accompanied by the Polish Ambassador, called to see me this afternoon.

The Prime Minister handed me a document, attached herewith, which contains the text of a telegram received today by General [Page 199] Sikorski from Stalin,89 sent in reply to a personal letter addressed to Stalin by General Sikorski on October 26. General Sikorski interprets the telegram from Stalin as a satisfactory indication that the Soviet Government desires to approach Polish-Soviet problems in a conciliatory spirit.

S[umner] W[elles]
[Annex]

The President of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Soviet Union (Stalin) to the Polish Prime Minister (Sikorski)

I have taken knowledge with satisfaction of your letter of October 26th which you transmitted to me in connection with the taking of office of the new Polish Ambassador Mr. Romer.

You may rest assured that Mr. Romer will meet with the cooperation of the Soviet Government toward the strengthening of reciprocal confidence and collaboration between our Countries in the spirit of those principles which were accepted as the basis of our mutual declaration and our conversations held in Moscow in December of last year.90

Stalin
  1. This telegram had been received by General Sikorski at Blair House in Washington on December 3, 1942.↩
  2. For correspondence concerning the visit of General Sikorski with Premier Stalin, see Foreign Relations, 1941, vol. i, pp. 264–268.↩