Office of the Historian

760F.61/120: Telegram

The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Harriman) to the Secretary of State

Moscow, December 23, 1943.
[Received December 24—12:30 p.m.]

2317. Moscow papers for December 23 announce that the exchange of ratifications of the Soviet-Czechoslovak treaty20 took place at the Kremlin on December 22. During the day Beneš visited the All Slav Committee and delivered a speech on the significance of the unity of the Slavs in battle for the future of the Slav peoples.21

In the evening Stalin gave a dinner at the Kremlin for Beneš which was attended by all members of the Politburo and a number of Soviet Generals.

Harriman
  1. This treaty had been ratified by the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Soviet Union and by the President of the Czechoslovak Republic on December 20.↩
  2. The Department commented in telegram No. 1440, December 21, to the Ambassador in the Soviet Union: “Although the Polish Government has thus far withheld comments on the Czechoslovak-Soviet Treaty the Polish Prime Minister has informed Schoenfeld that his preliminary trend of thought is to the effect that in principle the Polish Government might be willing to entertain the idea of such an arrangement with the Soviets provided that it formed part of a system of general security and that Poland had similar arrangements with the Western powers.” (800.00 Summaries/5g)↩