760C.61/1035: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Standley) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 27—noon.]
354. My 350, April 26, 2 p.m.37
1. The Polish Ambassador informed me this morning that he was requested to call at the Kremlin last night at midnight where he was read by Molotov a note38 accusing the Polish Government of conspiring with Hitler in connection with the recent campaign against the Soviet Union over the Polish officers alleged to have been murdered [Page 397] at Smolensk and stating that as a result “the Soviet Government had decided to discontinue its relations with the Polish Government.”
The Ambassador said that he refused to accept the note from Molotov declaring that he could not do so because of the insulting language in which it was couched and also because it did not represent the true facts; that he then asked Molotov for permission to return to Kuibyshev to make arrangements for the departure of himself and his staff and that Molotov said that he should take this matter up with the Foreign Office.
The Ambassador stated that about 2 a.m. a messenger delivered to him at his hotel a note from the Foreign Office39 and that he found it to be identical to the one read to him by Molotov. He gave me a translation of the note.
2. Molotov requested me to call this afternoon. Clark Kerr was leaving as I arrived and said in passing “Try to persuade him to postpone the publication of the note. This is madness—I’ve been trying to for the last hour but am afraid I was unsuccessful.”
Molotov advised me of a message dated April 21 addressed to the President and Churchill regarding Polish-Soviet relations which he said was delivered in the absence of the President and Mr. Hull, to Mr. Welles on the 24th.40 He said that this message was almost identical to the note which he was “forced” to give to Romer last night, and was sent to the President in order to explain the position of the Soviet Government in respect to the present controversy. He added that he was confident that the American Government would understand the Soviet position. He then read the note.41
In reply to my query Molotov stated that no answer had been received from the President to Stalin’s message. I explained the President’s absence as reason for no reply and stated that I felt sure that the President would be greatly disturbed at this turn of events. Learning that the note would be published this evening I stated that, speaking without instruction, I felt sure that the American and British Governments had been examining the question of Polish-Soviet relations hoping to find some solution which would make the present rupture in relations unnecessary and that I sincerely hoped that the publication of the note could be postponed long enough to permit a thorough examination of the question.
Molotov stated that the slanderous campaign against the Soviet Union in which Poland was playing hand in hand with Germany had been dragging on, in fact increasing in intensity, for 2 weeks, that the [Page 398] Soviet Government had shown the maximum patience, that public opinion in the Soviet Union was extremely indignant and that the Soviet Government could not ignore its public. For that reason it had decided to publish the note and it was hoped that the American Government would understand its position. Again speaking personally I said that it was impossible for me to believe that the Poles were conspiring with Germany and again I endeavored to prevail upon Molotov to hold up publication at least until the President had had an opportunity to reply to Stalin’s message. He was adamant maintaining that no Government with any self-respect could postpone even for a few days its decision to take action.
Since I understand that the tenor of the note has already been conveyed to the Department and since I assume that it will be published at home I am consequently not telegraphing it.
I am informed that Lozovski42 read the note to the Chiefs of Mission in Kuibyshev today.
Several days ago the Polish Ambassador in commenting on the worsened state of Polish-Soviet relations requested the Embassy to take over the Polish Embassy’s confidential files in case of a rupture in relations. I told him that I could not do so without instructions from the Department and suggested that he request that the Polish Embassy in Washington take up this question with the Department. He has not broached the subject since.
Department’s instructions requested.43
- Not printed.↩
- For text of the Soviet note, dated April 25, 1943, see Polish-Soviet Relations, 1918–1943, Official Documents, p. 245.↩
- For the note of April 26, 1943, by which Ambassador Romer refused to accept this later presentation of the Soviet note, see Polish-Soviet Relations, 1918–1943, Official Documents, p. 246.↩
- See telegram of April 25 from the Secretary of State to President Roosevelt, p. 390.↩
- A translation of the note, furnished by Mr. Molotov, was transmitted to the Department by the Ambassador in the Soviet Union in his despatch No. 107, May 6, 1943, not printed.↩
- Solomon Abramovich Lozovsky, Assistant People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union.↩
- No reply to this telegram has been found in Department files.↩