760C.61/1013: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Standley) to the Secretary of State
[Received March 23—9:28 a.m.]
191. The Polish Ambassador informed Clark Kerr and me today that in his last interview with Molotov on March 19 [18]82 the Foreign Commissar had categorically refused to enter into any further discussions on pending Soviet-Polish problems; that in reporting accordingly to his Government he had urged that no action be taken which might create a rupture in Soviet-Polish relations and that he believed that the Polish Government was consulting the British and American Governments on the matter. Romer was inclined to feel that a joint appeal on behalf of the Poles made to Stalin by the British and American Governments or separate appeals was the only solution that might ease the present situation. Both Clark Kerr and I advised Romer that we could, of course, take no action pending further instructions. Romer stated that he would probably endeavor to see Stalin again as a final effort.
In discussing the possibility of arriving at a compromise by an agreement on the part of the Poles to discuss the frontier question if Molotov would continue the citizenship negotiations Romer felt that to make such an agreement was tantamount to accepting the Soviet position in regard to the frontiers.
- For excerpts from Ambassador Romer’s conversation with Molotov at the Kremlin on March 18, 1943, see Polish-Soviet Relations, 1918–1943, Official Documents, pp. 235–245.↩