Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1944, The British Commonwealth and Europe, Volume III

760C.61/2163: Telegram

Moscow, January 16, 1944.
[Received January 17—12:31 p.m.]

143. There follows a translation of the text of a statement released by Tass for the January 17 morning papers:

“With reference to the declaration of the Polish Government in London of January 15, Tass is authorized to communicate the following:

“1. The declaration of the Polish Government, in which the main question of the recognition of the Curzon Line as the Soviet-Polish boundary is entirely avoided and ignored, cannot be considered otherwise than as a rejection of the Curzon Line.
“2. With regard to the proposal of the Polish Government concerning the opening of official conversations between it and the Soviet Government, the Soviet Government presumes that this proposal is calculated to lead public opinion astray, since it is not difficult to understand that the Soviet Government can not enter into official conversations with a government with which it has suspended diplomatic relations.
“Soviet circles recall that diplomatic relations with the Polish Government were suspended through the fault of that Government because [Page 1230] of its active participation in the hostile anti-Soviet slander campaign of the German occupants concerning the ‘Katyn murders’.40
“3. In the opinion of Soviet circles, the circumstances set forth above demonstrate once more that the present Polish Government does not desire to establish good neighborly relations with the Soviet Union.”

Harriman