Office of the Historian

860C.01/3–1345: Telegram

The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State

London, March 13, 1945—11 p.m.
[Received 11:05 p.m.]

2614. ReEmbs 2580, March 13, noon.16 Warner’s confirmation letter has now been received to the effect that Mr. Eden reluctantly has reached the conclusion that it would be wrong for the British to adopt the Department’s suggestion that Mikolajczyk should be approached at this time with a view of his making a public statement accepting the Crimea decision without reservation. Warner states that a similar suggestion to that made to the Department by Harriman was made on March 6 by Clark Kerr but that it had been felt: [Page 161]

a.
That Mikolajczyk could hardly be expected to make a statement which would render his own position vis-à-vis many of his compatriots much more difficult.
b.
That it would hardly be in the interests of a settlement of the Polish question along the lines of the Crimea decision that he should risk prejudicing his influence with many Poles, since if a representative new government can be set up in Poland, Mikolajczyk’s participation could be of great importance and it would be desirable that he should have the maximum amount of backing from Poles.
c.
That Mikolajczyk could not be expected to state publicly that he was ready to go to Moscow at once without also stating the three conditions which he had already put to us; he could thus hardly be expected to say that he accepted the Crimea decision without reservations.
d.
That Molotov’s point about Mikolajczyk’s statement in the press as [is] only an excuse for trying to bar Mikolajczyk from the discussions before the Commission and that even if Mikolajczyk could be persuaded to make a statement of the kind suggested, it is by no means impossible that Molotov would find another reason for black-balling him;
e.
Finally that it would really be very difficult to suggest to Mikolajczyk that he should make this statement at the present time when no progress at all has been made with the discussion between Molotov and our two Ambassadors; Mikolajczyk would naturally ask what progress had been made in the discussions between Molotov and the Ambassadors in Moscow; we should not be able to give him any reassuring information since no progress has been made.

Warner adds that on learning of the Department’s suggestion the matter was very carefully reconsidered by Mr. Eden but the above arguments in his view remain conclusive against approaching Mikolajczyk. Warner concluded that the Foreign Office would be interested to hear, in due course, whether or not Schoenfeld takes up the matter with Mikolajczyk.

Winant
  1. Not printed; it reported that British Foreign Secretary Eden was against saying anything to Mikolajczyk at present about a public statement (860C.01/3–1345).↩