862.014/5–845: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Chargé in the Soviet Union (Kennan)
1033. Please seek an early interview with Vishinsky and deliver to him a written memorandum reading in substance as follows: [Page 289]
“The Government of the USA has received the communication setting forth the status of the Free City of Danzig and certain pre-1937 German territory under Soviet military occupation which was addressed on April 17, 1945 by Vishinsky to Mr. Harriman. (Your tel. 1252, April 18 midnight.)
The United States Government fails to understand the statement in Mr. Vishinsky’s letter to the effect that the establishment and competence of the Polish civil administrations set up in the Free City of Danzig and certain Soviet occupied German territory have no relation to the question of the future boundaries of Poland. This statement and other statements in Vishinsky’s communication give rise to the impression that the Free City of Danzig and occupied German areas so administered remain effectively under Soviet military occupation with the local administration thereof entrusted only as a matter of convenience to indigenous Polish officials who are in no way the agents of or responsible to the Provisional Polish Government now functioning in Warsaw. The United States Government is unable to reconcile the assertions of the Soviet Government with the numerous reports and public statements made to the effect that the Polish Provisional Government now functioning in Warsaw has by decree formally incorporated into its state system certain enemy territory occupied by the Red Army and has appointed Poles from Poland proper as municipal and provincial officials to administer such enemy territory as integral parts of Poland. Moreover, additional reports from Poland ascribed to official sources there indicate among other things that the Provisional Polish Government now functioning in Warsaw is (1) setting up its complete state apparatus and enforcing its laws in these areas, (2) engaged already in a large scale transfer of Poles from other areas to this enemy territory and (3) planning the extension of its administration over additional enemy territory now under Soviet military occupation. Such reports declare that these and similar acts attributed to the Provisional Polish Government now functioning in Warsaw have been effected with the full knowledge and approval of the Soviet occupation authorities.
In the above circumstances, the United States Government informs the Soviet Government that changes such as these in the status of occupied enemy territory arising from the unilateral action of the occupying power without prior consultation and agreement between the several United Nations concerned disregard the principles upon which the agreements setting up the control machinery for Germany28 and the Protocols on the occupation were based. The Government of the United States wishes to make it clear that the Free City of Danzig and occupied German territory now subjected to Polish administration, as well as all other enemy territory held by the Red Army, remain in fact enemy territory under Soviet military occupation, and must be held as such pending the conclusion of such agreements and understandings as may be reached after full and complete consultation and deliberation between the Allied powers concerned.”
After presenting the memorandum you may in your discretion furnish Vishinsky orally with citations to articles in the Soviet and Polish press of the type mentioned in the Embassy telegrams Nos. 1090 [1091?] and 1674 [1467?] of April 9 and May 4, respectively. You should likewise inform him that your Government is naturally prepared to recognize the western frontier of Poland when delimited in accordance with the applicable decisions of the Crimea Conference but that we must until such time insist that no transfer be made of enemy territory under Soviet occupation to the Polish Provisional Government now functioning in Poland.
- For text of the agreement between the Governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union on control machinery for Germany, signed in London, November 14, 1944, see Conferences at Malta and Yalta, p. 124; TIAS, No. 3070; or 5 UST 2062.↩