760C.61/7–1744
The Chargé to the Polish Government in Exile (Schoenfeld) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 24.]
Sir: I have the honor to report that the Polish Government has publicly protested by inference against Marshal Stalin’s Order of the Day on July 13, 1944, in which he announced the liberation from the Fascist invaders of Vilna, “the capital of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic,” by troops of the Third Byelorussian Front and ordered a salute of 24 salvos from 324 guns to be fired in Moscow in honor of the troops which captured the “capital of Soviet Lithuania.”
[Page 1365]In a statement issued to the press on July 15, 1944, the Polish Government says that from March, 1944, in accordance with its instructions and those of the Supreme Command of the Polish Armed Forces, the Polish Underground Army has cooperated with the Soviet armies in open fighting in the rear of the German armies and has contributed effective military aid, particularly in the Vilna area. By so doing, the Polish Underground Army has proved its close ties with the Polish State and Government. The Polish Government, the statement concludes, expects the United Nations to recognize this stand of the Polish people and its sacrifices and to maintain the principle of the Allied Nations that no territorial changes shall be recognized without the freely expressed consent of the peoples concerned. A copy of the Polish Government’s statement is enclosed.68
Respectfully yours,
- Not printed.↩