760C.61/2149: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State
[Received January 11—7:20 p.m.]
265. For the Secretary and Under Secretary. This evening Eden23 told me that he had talked this afternoon to the Poles. They had prepared an uncompromising statement in opposition to the announced position of the Russians. He tried to explain to them that the Russian statement gave a degree of latitude in relation to frontiers and said he thought that a more helpful position on the part of the Poles would be to recognize that the immutability of what had appeared to be the Russian stand should be welcomed by them even if the specific proposals were not acceptable to them.
In the early part of the conversation the Poles refused even to consider any proposition that suggested the Curzon line as an equitable settlement of the frontier problem and were in what Eden described to be as a kind of “suicide mind”. He felt that he had made some little impression on them and tried to persuade them to move forward toward concession as he felt the Russians were doing on their side. I felt that Eden was a bit discouraged as a result of his conversation but still had some hope of a modified reply by the Poles to the Russian statement.
- Anthony Eden, British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.↩