Foreign Relations of the United States, Diplomatic Papers, 1945, General: The United Nations, Volume I

500.CC/2–2245: Telegram

The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Mexico (Messersmith)

Washington, February 22, 1945—9 p.m.

366. For Secretary Stettinius.

1. Since, in accordance with your instructions (paragraph 3 of your 45, February 16, from Dakar⁴²), no invitation is to be issued to the London Polish Government to attend the San Francisco Conference, I am proposing to issue a public statement along the following lines if the question is raised (as it undoubtedly will be) when the invitations are made public:

Begin text. At the Crimea Conference it was agreed⁴³ that a Polish Provisional Government of National Unity is to be established through a reorganization on a broad democratic basis of the Provisional Government now functioning in Poland with the inclusion of democratic leaders from Poland itself and from Poles abroad. Furthermore, it was agreed at that Conference that when a Polish Provisional Government of National Unity has been properly formed in accordance with the steps that were outlined there, the Governments of the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union would establish diplomatic relations with it. It is our hope that by the time the United Nations Conference meets at San Francisco on April 25 the projected Polish Provisional Government of National Unity will have been formed and diplomatic relations with it will have been established by the major nations. In that event, an invitation to send representatives to the San Francisco Conference will, of course, be extended to the new Polish Provisional Government of National Unity. End of text.⁴⁴

2. I would appreciate your approval or appropriate modification of the foregoing statement.⁴⁵.…

. . . . . . .

Grew

42. Not printed.
43. For text of agreement signed on February 11 at Yalta, see section VI of the communiqué issued at the end of the Conference, Conferences at Malta and Yalta, p. 973.
44. On February 25, the text of the proposed public statement was transmitted by the Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassadors in the Soviet Union, China, and the United Kingdom (telegram 421, February 25, 4 p.m., to Moscow, repeated as telegram 328 to Chungking; and telegram 1454, February 25, 4 p.m., to the United Kingdom), with the request that it be communicated to the Foreign Ministers of the respective Governments and that their reactions be cabled promptly.
45. In telegram 240, February 23, 4 p.m., from Mexico City, Secretary Stettinius informed Acting Secretary Grew of his approval of Mr. Grew’s statement on the matter of issuing an invitation to Poland to attend the San Francisco Conference (500.CC/2–2345).