Foreign Relations of the United States, Conference at Quebec, 1944

Roosevelt Papers: Telegram

Prime Minister Churchill to President Roosevelt¹

top secret

London, 4th September 1944.

Prime Minister to President Roosevelt. Personal and top secret. Number 779.

1. The War Cabinet are deeply disturbed at the position in Warsaw and at the far-reaching effect on future relations with Russia of Stalin’s refusal of airfield facilities.

2. Moreover as you know Mikołajczyk has sent his proposals to the Polish Committee of Liberation for a political settlement.² I am afraid that the fall of Warsaw will not only destroy any hope of progress but will fatally undermine the position of Mikołajczyk himself.

3. My immediately following telegram[s] contain the text of a telegram which the War Cabinet in their collective capacity have sent to our Ambassador in Moscow and also of a message which the women of Warsaw have communicated to the Pope³ and which has been handed by the Vatican to our Minister.⁴

4. The only way of bringing material help quickly to the Poles fighting in Warsaw would be for United States aircraft to drop sup plies using Russian airfields for the purpose. Seeing how much is in jeopardy we beg that you will again consider the big stakes involved. Could you not authorize your Air Forces to carry out this operation, landing if necessary on Russian airfields without their formal consent? In view of our great successes in the west, I cannot think that the Russians could reject this fait accompli. They might even welcome it as getting them out of an awkward situation. We would of course share full responsibility with you for any action taken by your Air Force.⁵

Prime

1. Sent to Washington by the United States Military Attaché, London, via Army channels; forwarded by the White House Map Room to Roosevelt, who was then at Hyde Park, as telegram No. Red 369.
2. For the text of the proposals referred to, which were transmitted to the Soviet authorities on August 30, 1944, and forwarded to the Lublin Committee, see Foreign Relations, 1944, vol. iii, pp. 1315–1317.
3. Not printed herein. For the text of Churchill’s telegram No. 781, forwarding this appeal to Roosevelt, see Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy, p. 143.
4. Sir D’Arcy Osborne.
5. Roosevelt, by telegram No. Blue 139, directed Leahy to take the subject matter of this telegram up with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and with Hull and to prepare a reply. A draft reply, approved by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Department of State, was forwarded to the President at Hyde Park on September 5 in telegram No. Red 374, and was approved by Roosevelt without change (telegram No. Blue 140). For the text of the reply, see post, p. 190.