862.014/5–1745: Telegram
The Chargé in the Soviet Union (Kennan) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 17—7 p.m.]
1632. ReDeptel 1033, May 8, 11 a.m. and reEmbtel 1540, May 11, 8 p.m. Vyshinski has replied in a note dated May 16 to the memorandum I left with him concerning the establishment of a Polish civil administration in Danzig and certain pre-1937 German territories under Soviet military occupation.
In his reply, which refers only to the establishment of a Polish civil administration in Danzig, Vyshinski states that it is quite natural that the Polish civil administration acting under the direction of the provisional Govt is functioning according to Polish law. He denies that this circumstance can be considered to disregard the principles on which the agreements for establishing control machinery for Germany and the protocols on German occupation were based. In justification of this position he cites the military necessity which he advanced in his letter of April 15 (reEmbtel 1252, April 18, midnight). He insists that it is necessary to keep this fact in mind since the Crimea decision recognized that Poland must receive substantial additional territory to the north and west which, he says, thus not only does not exclude but presupposes the possibility of a Polish administration functioning in this territory. He again emphasizes as self-evident that the final determination of Poland’s western boundary will be made at the peace settlement as envisaged in the Crimea decision. End Summary.
Dept will note first, that in this note Vyshinski refers only to Danzig and does not mention pre-1937 German territory, second that he does not deny the correctness of any of the statements made in the Dept’s 1033, May 8, 11 a.m., concerning measures which have been taken to [Page 298] transfer these territories to Polish administration, and third that he does not reject our contention that these territories remain in fact enemy territory under Soviet military occupation and must remain as such pending conclusion of final agreements between the Allied powers concerned.
The Soviet Govt may be expected not to overlook the parallel between the situation in Poland and that in the Dodecanese Islands where, according to British press reports available here, the Greek Regent41 has planted the Greek flag, notwithstanding the position taken by the American Govt as outlined in the Dept’s 1050, May 10, 4 p.m.42 The London Daily Worker43 has reportedly already contrasted this action in the Dodecanese with Allied policy toward Tito44 in Venezia Giulia.45
- Damaskinos, Archibishop of Athens.↩
- Not printed, but see memorandum to the British Embassy, April 27, and footnote 90, vol. viii, last section under Greece.↩
- Newspaper of the British Communist Party.↩
- Marshal Josip Broz Tito, Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense in the Provisional Government of Yugoslavia.↩
- For documentation regarding the concern of the United States over the control of Venezia Giulia, see vol. iv, pp. 1103 ff.↩