860C.00/12–545
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Chief of the Division of Eastern European Affairs (Durbrow)
| Participants: | Mr. William L. Clayton, Assistant Secretary |
| Mr. Janus Zoltowski, Polish Chargé d’Affaires | |
| Dr. Ludwik Rajchman | |
| (Present—Mr. Elbridge Durbrow, EE) |
Mr. Zoltowski, the Polish Chargé d’Affaires, requested to see the Secretary in order to present a formal request for credits along the lines suggested by Vice Premier Mikolajczk when he talked to the President. The Secretary was unable to receive him and therefore arrangements were made for Mr. Zoltowski to call on Mr. Clayton. This afternoon Mr. Zoltowski and Dr. Rajchman called for the above purpose.
Dr. Rajchman explained at great length the needs of the Polish economy, stressing the fact that Poland needed 30,000 railway cars, primarily gondola cars, to handle coal shipments. He added that road building machinery, port facilities, certain raw materials and telecommunication equipment were also needed. He made a long plea for the granting of sufficient credits to purchase this type of goods in the United States.
Dr. Rajchman stated that he had been authorized by the Polish [Page 428] Government to informally advise the United States Government that the Polish Government shortly would inform Ambassador Lane that it is prepared to make commitments regarding economic policy in conformity with the stipulations contained in article 7 of the lend-lease agreement. He added that the Polish Government had not and would not make any arrangements with any country which would give that country a monopolistic or privileged position in economic matters. He explained that while the Soviet Government had endeavored some time ago to work out an agreement which might have given it a privileged position, the Polish Government had not accepted this arrangement.
Dr. Rajchman also indicated that Poland had urgent need for fats. In this connection, he explained that because of the shortage of certain materials such as fats, the Polish Government had established a ration system, giving food to special categories of workers in the following order: 1) miners, 2) railway operators, 3) textile workers, 4) hospitals.
Mr. Zoltowski then presented an aide-mémoire (copy of which is attached)10 referring to the conversation Mr. Mikolajczyk had with the President on the question of credits. Mr. Clayton read the aide-mémoire and promised to look into the matter.
During the course of the conversation Mr. Clayton made no commitments whatsoever beyond the statement that he would look into the matter and hoped that despite the heavy demands from other sources it might prove possible to grant certain limited credits to Poland for specific purposes. He indicated that in all probability the credits would be small. Dr. Rajchman seemed to be surprised at these remarks but Mr. Clayton again reiterated that heavy demands have already been placed on United States credit facilities and, therefore, he did not anticipate that for the moment it would be possible to grant large credits to Poland.
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