Hopkins Papers: Telegram

The Polish Prime Minister ( Mikołajczyk ) to President Roosevelt 1

The Soviet Government, having now agreed to collaboration in the so urgent matter of aid to Warsaw,3 I appeal to you, Mr. President, to issue a directive to General Dwight D. Eisenhower for immediate air operations in support of the defenders of Warsaw.

Should the Soviet Government begin to discuss the plan of aid and raise reservations, so much time would elapse that it might be too late to save Warsaw.

Stanislaw Mikołajczyk
  1. Sent to the Polish Ambassador at Washington (Ciechanowski), who incorporated it into a memorandum of September 11, 1944, with the request that it be transmitted immediately to Roosevelt. Bohlen forwarded Ciechanowski’s memorandum to Hopkins with the following comment: “It is obvious that the British have informed the Polish Government of the change in attitude of the Soviet Government. While it does not add anything to what the President already knows, it probably should go on to him.” Hopkins forwarded Mikołajczyk’s message to Roosevelt at Quebec in telegram No. MR–out –388, September 11, 1944. (Hopkins Papers)
  2. The date of Mikołajczyk’s message is not indicated in the source text, but a different translation of the message printed in Documents on Polish-Soviet Relations, p. 389, is dated September 10.
  3. See ante, p. 202, regarding the Soviet action referred to.