860C.01/12–1944

The Secretary of State to the President

top secret

Memorandum for the President

Subject: Suggested Reply to Stalin’s Message on the Lublin Committee

I have seen Stalin’s reply dated December 271 to your message of December 17 [16]2 in regard to Poland in which he said that he cannot accede to your request to postpone recognition of the Lublin Committee as the provisional government of Poland but on the contrary suggests that this Government and those of the other Allied countries should accord similar recognition.

According to our information, the recognition of the Lublin Committee as the provisional government of Poland is expected to occur on December 31. For this reason, while I would have much preferred to have had an opportunity to discuss a reply to Stalin with you following your return tomorrow, we feel that it would be most important to get an answer in his hands before the expected date of recognition. I am, accordingly, attaching a proposed reply to Stalin.3 You will note that the position which this Government takes in the reply is along the same lines as the attitude of the British Government, set forth in the Prime Minister’s telegram no. 854, December 16, to you.4 If you approve this message, it can go tonight and be repeated to Prime Minister Churchill for his information.

E. R. Stettinius, Jr.
  1. Supra.
  2. Ante, pp. 217218.
  3. The reply as sent is printed infra.
  4. Not printed; but see ante, p. 216, footnote 2.