760C.61/996: Telegram
The Chargé in the United Kingdom (Matthews) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 17—3:50 p.m.]
1221. Embassy’s 1172, February 15, 9 p.m. One of the higher ranking officials of the Foreign Office responsible for Soviet and eastern European matters has told us that Clark Kerr,40 who is awaiting favorable weather for his return to Moscow, has been instructed to investigate on his return the report that the Poles are no longer permitted to carry on relief work among Poles in the Soviet Union, The Soviet authorities, according to this report, put a stop to this relief work about the same time that they informed the Poles that they would no longer regard as Polish citizens those Poles who, in the autumn of 1939, were living in Soviet-occupied Poland. If Clark [Page 335] Kerr finds that this relief work has actually been stopped, he is to see Ambassador Standley and, after consultation with Ambassador Standley, report such recommendations to the Foreign Office as he thinks might be generally helpful.
According to this same Foreign Office official Clark Kerr has been further requested to sound out Soviet officials, as soon as a favorable opportunity for doing so arises, on the question of a federation of eastern and central European states. When Eden was in Moscow in the winter of 1941,41 and when Molotov was in London in the spring of 1942,42 this subject was broached by the British. On both occasions Soviet officials shied away from any discussion of it by saying that they feared that such a federation would be aimed not against Germany but against the Soviet Union. This probably is still the attitude of the Soviet Government but the Foreign Office, according to our informant, thinks it would be well to determine as soon as possible just how the Soviet Government views such a scheme so that it can be decided whether the idea of a federation should at this time be encouraged or dropped. In any event, this Foreign Office official continued, he feels that any plan for a federation sponsored by the Poles would fare badly because of the rather general, current feeling of suspicion and resentment toward the Poles among the Russians and others who would be immediately affected by such a proposal.
While this same Foreign Office official felt that the replacement in Moscow of Kot by Romer,43 whom he regards as better qualified by experience and temperament, might lead to some improvement in Soviet-Polish relations, he was afraid that the tone of what he termed “the Polish opposition press” in London would continue to be a disturbing factor in these relations. These Polish language newspapers are edited and supported by that Polish element in London which is opposed to Sikorski, and opposed to him primarily because of his policy of rapprochement with the Soviet Union. In these newspapers articles continually appear which reflect suspicion of the Soviet Government. The Soviet Embassy complained to the Foreign Office about these articles not so long ago. When Sikorski was told of the complaint by the Foreign Office he replied that as he was a firm believer in a free press he could do nothing about the matter.
- Sir Archibald Clark Kerr, British Ambassador in the Soviet Union.↩
- Anthony Eden, British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, was in Moscow December 16–22, 1941; for correspondence on his visit, see Foreign Relations, 1941, vol. i, pp. 192–205.↩
- For correspondence concerning the visit of the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union, Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov, to London and Washington during May and June 1942, see ibid., 1942, vol. iii, pp. 543–599, passim. ↩
- Tadeusz Homer succeeded Stanislaw Kot as Polish Ambassador in the Soviet Union in October 1942.↩