840.48 Refugees/3877
Memorandum of Conversation, by Mr. Elbridge Durbrow of the Division of European Affairs
Mr. Donald Hall called today at his request to inform the Department that a telegram had been received from the Foreign Office expressing the hope that, in compliance with the agreement between the President and Mr. Churchill, instructions had been sent to Admiral Standley requesting that he support the British Ambassador’s efforts in Moscow to reach an agreement with the Soviet Government to permit the evacuation of certain categories of Polish citizens, particularly relatives of the armed forces of Poland and Polish orphans.
Mr. Hall stated that during the Prime Minister’s visit84 he had received from the Foreign Office a telegram suggesting that he take up with the President the question of American support of the British position in regard to the evacuation of Poles from the USSR and that the President and Mr. Hopkins85 had agreed to send appropriate instructions to Admiral Standley.
In this connection Mr. Hall stated that Sir Ronald Campbell86 hoped to call on the Secretary today or tomorrow in order to ascertain whether such instructions had been sent so that he could reply to the latest telegram from the Foreign Office asking for information on this subject.
Mr. Hall suggested that the Secretary might be informed of the proposed visit of Sir Ronald Campbell and that if the Secretary could not see him that I might be in a position to give him an answer to this inquiry.
I informed Mr. Hall that I had no information on this subject but would take up the matter with the appropriate officials of the Department.
- The records of the Third Washington Conference, May 12–25, 1943, between President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill, are scheduled for publication in a subsequent volume of Foreign Relations. ↩
- Harry L. Hopkins, Special Assistant to President Roosevelt.↩
- British Minister in the United States.↩