760C.61/1032: Telegram
The Ambassador to the Polish Government in Exile (Biddle) to the Secretary of State
[Received 6:55 p.m.]
Polish Series [No.] 21. Supplementing my 19, April 23, 7 p.m. Discussing growing intensity with which the Germans are plugging their anti-Bolshevik campaign both by press and radio, Sikorski said it was significant in connection therewith that Nazi terroristic tactics had suddenly shown a marked decrease throughout Poland, except against the Jews; that following the killing in Warsaw of Gestapo [Page 389] authority Hoffman,23 the Germans, contrary to their usual practice, did not take reprisals; and that the Germans recently permitted shipments of medical supplies from a neutral country into Poland.
Sikorski went on to say Ambassador Romer recently reported that the Soviet authorities had authorized the Polish Embassy to issue passports to those Polish citizens about whom there was no dispute. As to whether this move might be taken to indicate (a) a more accommodating tendency on part of the Soviet Government, or (b) a minor concession possibly confined to Poles in Russia who had their relatives here and in the Middle East, remained to be seen. Sikorski believes that it does not affect the Soviet Government’s principal contention set forth in its note of January 16, 1943.
Experience has to my mind shown that Moscow has in effect two policies: A winter one whereby Moscow on a wave of military successes attempts to settle major questions affecting Russia’s forward looking interests, and a summer one whereby Moscow becomes more accommodating in attitude. There are signs that we are again approaching this latter policy, and I feel that if the Polish Government would confine its efforts to settling behind closed doors its outstanding questions with Moscow, and would cease trying its various cases in the press, thus affecting Moscow’s prestige, the Polish Government might conceivably benefit from Russia’s summer policy.
- The Polish Government in Exile announced on April 21 that Kurt Hoffman, head of the German Labor Exchange in Warsaw, had been shot and killed by Polish patriots.↩