Foreign Relations of the United States, Diplomatic Papers, 1943, The British Commonwealth, Eastern Europe, the Far East, Volume III

760C.61/2025½

Memorandum of Conversation, by Mr. Elbridge Durbrow of the Division of European Affairs

[Washington,] May 17, 1943.

Mr. Russell⁷⁹ informed me today that the British Government was somewhat alarmed by the report that a Polish Legion was to be formed in the USSR from former Poles domiciled in the Eastern provinces of Poland⁸⁰ and had instructed their Ambassador in Moscow to discuss this question with the Soviet Government. The British Government stated that it could not understand how a separate Polish Legion could be formed of Polish citizens since the Soviet Government had recently stated that there were no longer any Polish citizens in the USSR.

Furthermore, the British Government asked its Ambassador in Moscow to ask for a clarification from the Soviet Government as to the purpose for which the Union of Polish Patriots had been set up in the USSR.^* The Ambassador was instructed to bring to the attention of the Soviet Government the fact that the recognition of this Polish Committee was similar to the action taken during the last war in recognizing a Czech Committee in London⁸¹ prior to the granting of full recognition to the Czech Government and to point out to the Soviet Government that the recognition of this Committee was not in conformity with the assurances given by Mr. Stalin to Mr. Churchill that the Soviet Government did not intend to set up a rival Polish Government in the USSR.

In regard to British efforts being made to heal the breach in diplomatic relations Mr. Russell stated that the British Government at the present time was endeavoring to use its influence to heal the breach⁸² and at the same time to obtain the consent of the Soviet Government to secure the departure from the USSR of members of the families of the Polish armed forces as well as other categories of Polish citizens, particularly those who were formerly domiciled west of the Molotov-Ribbentrop line, and Polish orphans.

Mr. Russell added that it was his understanding that the British Government was discussing the question of the evacuation of certain categories of Poles at the same time it was endeavoring to heal the breach in order to keep the entire question open.

Elbridge Durbrow

79. John W. Russell, Second Secretary of the British Embassy in the United States.
80. The Polish Ambassador, in a personal letter of May 13 to the Assistant Chief of the Division of European Affairs, had called attention to this action (760C.61/1099).
81. This organization was referred to in Moscow press despatches on May 13, 1943. [Footnote in the original memorandum.]
81. For recognition by the United States of the Czecho-Slovak National Council on September 3, 1918, see telegram to the Ambassador in Japan, September 3, 1918, Foreign Relations, 1918, supp. 1, vol. i, p. 824.
82. In a memorandum of May 20 (760C.61/2025½), Mr. Durbrow recorded that Mr. Donald Hall, First Secretary of the British Embassy, had shown him copies of telegrams from the British Ambassador in the Soviet Union to the British Foreign Office. In a telegram of May 17, the British Ambassador had expressed hope that in his efforts to heal the breach in Polish-Soviet relations he could count upon the assistance of the American Ambassador, but had added that unfortunately the American Ambassador had so far not received any instructions in this regard.