760C.61/2022: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Standley)90
428. With reference to my immediately preceding telegram regarding the Polish-Soviet dispute it is perhaps pertinent to point out for your information that it is the Department’s understanding that the British proposals envisage only efforts to obtain the consent of the Soviet Government to the evacuation of the following categories of Polish civilians in the order of importance indicated:
- 1.
- Close relatives of Polish armed forces already abroad.
- 2.
- Poles whose domicile was west of 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop line.
- 3.
- Polish orphans.
In this connection it is not clear here whether the British approach contemplates requesting the release of only those Poles in categories 1 and 3 who were domiciled west of the 1939 line or whether it envisages all Polish civilians who fall into these categories.
[Page 431]The Department feels that if this summary of the British proposal is correct, category 2 should in any case not be used as a basis of discussion since it automatically brings up the frontier question which it is felt must not be discussed at this time.
- Quoted in telegram No. 3663 on the same date to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom.↩