740.0011 European War 1939/25254½
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
The British Ambassador called to see me this evening at his request.
Lord Halifax told me that he had happened to speak a few days ago to the Polish Ambassador. Mr. Ciechanowski had said that during the latter part of September he had had occasion to speak with the Soviet Ambassador and had inquired why the Soviet Government was undertaking what was so obviously an intensive propaganda campaign in England and the United States for the creation of a second front at this time. The Polish Ambassador had stated that Mr. Litvinov had frankly answered in reply to these inquiries that the real reason was that the Soviet Government believed it possible that the British and United States Governments would undertake to discuss some form of compromise peace proposal with the German Government on the basis of sacrifices to be made exclusively by the Soviet Union, and that the best way of preventing any eventuality of this kind was through the creation of a second front in Europe in which both the British and United States Governments would be so extensively drawn in as to make it impossible for public opinion in either country to sanction any compromise peace negotiations.
Lord Halifax remarked to the Polish Ambassador that this seemed to him an amazing display of ignorance on the part of the Soviet Government of the real state of public opinion in both Great Britain [Page 473] and the United States. To this Mr. Ciechanowski had remarked that it might seem strange to us here but that he believed the reply was absolutely accurate and reflected the mental processes of the present directors of Soviet policy.