Office of the Historian

860C.515/116

Memorandum by the Assistant Chief of the Division of Eastern European Affairs (Durbrow)96

[Washington,] March 10, 1944.

Pursuant to our conversation this morning I enclose herewith the original copy of a letter97 received from Mr. Karpinski98 with which [Page 1267] he gives assurances that the Polish gold99 to be transported to the United States is ready for shipment from Dakar and that arrangements have been made with the Federal Reserve Bank to insure each shipment for the amount of $3,125,000.1

I have been assured by Mr. Kwapiszewski,2 the Chargé d’Affaires a.i., that he will execute the waiver of responsibility certificate and send it to me within the next two days.

You may care to pass this information on to the Navy Department.

Elbridge Durbrow
  1. Addressed to Assistant Secretary of State Breckinridge Long and David M. Key, assistant liaison officer in the office of the Secretary of State.↩
  2. Not printed.↩
  3. Zygmunt Karpinski, Director of the Bank of Poland.↩
  4. See Foreign Relations, 1943, vol. iii, p. 443, and footnote 4, p. 444.↩
  5. The total amount of gold to be shipped was held in 445 cases containing gold bars and coin valued at approximately $27,200,000.↩
  6. Michal Kwapiszewski, Counselor of the Polish Embassy in Washington, who held the rank of Minister Plenipotentiary.↩