760C.61/2203b: Telegram
President Roosevelt to the British Prime Minister (Churchill)67
I share your concern over the potential dangers of the present Polish-Soviet situation, and I understand the spirit in which you sent your number 33 to U. J.68 Isn’t there a possibility that the wording of paragraphs 7 and 8 will give him the impression that you are wedded to the present personalities of the Polish Government-in-exile and are determined to see them reinstated as the future government of Poland? He may interpret this as evidence of a design on your part to see established along the borders of the Soviet Union a government which rightly or wrongly they regard as containing elements irrevocably hostile to the Soviet Union. I know that this is not your intention and that you are only interested in preserving the principle of the right of all countries to choose their government without interference, and specifically to avoid the creation by the Soviet Government of a rival Polish Government. Might it not be well to make this clear to U. J. by some reference to the possibility that the Polish Government would of its own accord, if a real solution on the frontier and other questions with Russia was in the offing, accept the resignation of those persons known to be particularly objectionable to the Soviet Government.
I recognize that because of treaty obligations with both sides you are more directly concerned with the immediate issues between the USSR and Poland. Our primary concern is the potential dangers [Page 1246] of this situation to the essential unity which was so successfully established at Moscow and Tehran. It is for this reason that I have confined the official action of this Government to a tender of good offices looking towards the resumption of relations between Poland and the Soviet Union. Feeling, however, that this unity and the larger issues connected therewith are now definitely at stake, I have just sent the following message to U. J.:
[Here follows text of message printed supra.]
- This message was sent in telegram 952, February 8, 1944, noon, to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom, with instructions to deliver it to the Prime Minister. Ambassador Winant replied in telegram 1100, February 9, 6 p.m., that he had that day delivered the message. The Prime Minister had asked that the President be informed that “all this is being pressed forward on the lines you desire and in a few days I will have something further to report to you”. (760C.61/2207)↩
- See telegram 557, January 28, from the British Prime Minister to President Roosevelt, p. 1240, which repeated what had been sent to Stalin as telegram No. 33.↩