Office of the Historian

860C.01/3–2445: Telegram

The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Harriman) to the Secretary of State

Moscow, March 24, 1945—4 p.m.
[Received 11:59 p.m.]

894. Polco. At the meeting last night of the Polish Commission as indicated in my telegram reporting the details of the discussion,36 it was agreed that Clark Kerr and I should set our hand to a revision of the four principles suggested by Molotov in paragraph 4 of his aide-mémoire of March 22. The following three points which are given in reverse order represent the redraft agreed upon with Clark Kerr:

3.
The Commission should also decide the question of the summoning of additional Polish Democratic leaders from Poland and abroad, consultation with whom is recognized by the Commission as desirable in the interests of the fulfillment of the decisions of the Crimea conference. In this connection, full weight should be given to the desire of any member of the Commission to call any particular Polish Democratic leader whom he may consider to be of value for the purpose in view.
2.
The Commission should immediately proceed to the holding of the consultations with which it has been charged, for which purpose representatives of the Provisional Government now functioning in Poland should be summoned together with a representative group of other Democratic leaders from Poland and abroad. (A combination of Molotov’s second and third principles.)
1.
The Commission should base its work upon the following principle underlying the decision of the Crimea conference on Poland: the new government of national unity is to be made broadly representative of all democratic elements of the Polish state by a reorganization of the provisional government now functioning in Poland with the inclusion of Democratic leaders from Poland itself and Poles abroad.

Clark Kerr is submitting the three points to London for approval. I would appreciate receiving the Department’s comments prior to our next meeting on March 26.

Harriman
  1. Telegram No. 882, March 24, 1 p.m., not printed; it reported that the Commission on Poland held another 3-hour conversation on the night of March 23 with little profit and that the most serious difference of opinion remained on the question of inviting the Warsaw Poles to Moscow in the first instance, before extending invitations to other Polish leaders (860C.01/3–2445).↩