860C.01/1–2345: Telegram

The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Italy (Kirk)

134. Your 198, January 23, 3 p.m. United States Government would not look with favor upon proposals to send any kind of Italian observer to Lublin at this time, particularly one with diplomatic status. Please see de Gasperi19 urgently and discuss this question with him. Ask if he has considered the political implications of such a move. Point out that any action by the Italian Government which might be interpreted as recognition of the group at Lublin would be distinctly regretted by the United States Government which does not recognize the Lublin group, has no representative in Lublin, and sees no necessity for the Italian Government’s having such a representative. This Government is confident that the Italian Government will agree with this point of view.20

The British Embassy has been informed of the above and your British colleague will, it is understood, receive similar instructions.

For your secret information the French “unofficial observer” now in Poland was sent there primarily because Stalin tried to force de Gaulle21 (during the latter’s visit to Moscow22) to recognize the Lublin Committee. De Gaulle refused but finally consented, in a last minute compromise, to send an unofficial observer to Lublin to look after such French citizens as might be there. The presence of the Frenchman in Lublin has, of course, been exploited by the Committee there.

Sent to Home; repeated to London and Moscow.

Grew
  1. Alcide de Gasperi, Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs.
  2. In telegram 224, January 25, 1945, 5 p.m., the Ambassador in Italy reported having communicated to Foreign Minister de Gasperi the views of the Department and stated:

    “De Gasperi seemed to appreciate the unadvisability of taking any step of a formal nature involving the Lublin group and assured me that no decision in any phase of this matter would be taken without consulting me further.” (860C.01/1–2545).

  3. Gen. Charles de Gaulle, President of the Council of Ministers of the Provisional Government of France.
  4. For General de Gaulle’s description of his visit to Moscow during December 1944, his conversations with Marshal Stalin, and the discussions between French and Soviet officials regarding the recognition of the communist-dominated Polish Provisional Government, see The War Memoirs of Charles de Gaulle: Salvation, 1944–1946 (New York, 1960), pp. 67–89.