706.60C41/11: Telegram
The Ambassador to the Polish Government in Exile (Biddle) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 16—4:22 a.m.]
Polish Series [No.] 36. I have just explained your position to General Sikorski in the sense of your 3079, May 14, 2 p.m. In response he said the British Government had just informed him that for similar reasons British Government had considered it advisable to have the Chief of the Australian Mission in Kuibyshev76 assume protection of Polish interests.77 He was grateful to the Australians but naturally disappointed that it was not the British representative who was undertaking the task.
He emphasized his opinion that it was most important that we and the British render the Australian Mission firm support in its task. Any signs of weakness at this time would only serve to encourage what he considered was Russia’s desire to use the Polish-Russian situation as a stepping stone for Communist infiltration not only in the middle zone but also in the western part of the Continent. While he was deeply aware of his responsibility to his own nation and to his Allies and would accordingly place no obstacle in the way of healing the breach in Polish-Russian relations, he finds little if any ground for hope for reestablishment of relations.
He went on to say that yesterday the Counselor of the Polish Embassy to Great Britain78 had been approached by an American friend of Maisky with the following conditions for a renewal of relations: (a) A reconstructed government with emphasis on the necessity of replacing Minister for Information Kot; (b) suppression of the Polish press; (c) tranquilization of the anti-Soviet attitude of the Polish forces here and in the Middle East.
When the foregoing was communicated to Sikorski he instructed Kulski to reply to his informant along the following lines as though it were his own reaction: In reply to (a) that in his private opinion the replacement of Kot and/or others by men of a more pro-Soviet frame of mind might possibly be brought about if M. Molotov in turn were replaced by someone less anti-Polish than himself; that this would be only a question of equal treatment; in reply to (b) that he was aware that the Polish press had already altered its tone; in reply [Page 421] to (c) that he was aware that Sikorski had already given orders to that effect; in fact Sikorski planned to go to the Middle East shortly in order personally to see to it that his orders were carried out.
Sikorski has just been informed by a usually reliable source that Maisky’s agents were already preparing a brochure severely attacking the various members of the Polish Government. This, he said, did not give much hope for an amelioration in the attitude of the Russian Embassies here which were constantly envisaged [endeavoring?] through directions to the Daily Worker and other Communist Party organs here to diminish the authority and prestige of the Polish Government.
- William Slater, Australian Minister in the Soviet Union.↩
- In telegram No. 326, May 18, 7 p.m., the Department notified the Ambassador in the Soviet Union that it had been informally advised by the British that the Australian Government had consented, subject to Soviet approval, to take over the representation of Polish interests in the Soviet Union (706.60C47/1).↩
- Wladislaw Kulski.↩