860C.00/1–546: Telegram
The Ambassador in Poland ( Lane ) to the Secretary of State
[Received January 8—3:45 p.m.]
19. I spoke with greatest seriousness Jan 4 to ForMin,1 Olszewski2 and Zebrowski3 regarding deterioration of economic relations between Poland and the US. I said that while US does not in any way wish to assume as implied in the Polish press an economic and imperialistic attitude towards Poland I could not as supposedly a logical person understand the criticisms of Mr. Minc4 and other members of Polish Govt towards the “capitalistic” attitude at the very moment when Poland is requesting one half billion dollars credit from the US. I said that the US is not interested in dominating Poland economically or any other way but that as long as Polish Govt is inclined to adopt an attitude unfriendly towards American interests in Poland such as the prohibition of American engineers to visit the Giesche properties in Silesia despite treaty obligations5 permitting them to do so I would not recommend the granting of any credits to the Govt, of Poland.
[Page 375]When Mr. Olszewski with his customary bad manners mentioned that I should have learned in Poland that no good is accomplished by slamming the door, I observed that we had opened the door to Poland and that Poland through the declarations of its Ministers was closing it in our face. I made it clear that we enjoy no privileges in Poland except those to which we are entitled by treaty.
Desiring to emphasize my displeasure at the attitude which the Polish Govt had enunciated I endeavored to terminate the conversation but Rzymowski apparently realizing seriousness of my remarks begged me to remain. I then told him that I was speaking not only as American Ambassador but as a friend of Poland and said I could not understand why after months of requests we had never received info which should be public property re Polish economic commitments with other nations.
During this conversation Olszewski made irrevelant remarks re nationalization of British industries to justify Polish legislation.6 I said that as a sovereign nation Poland has a perfect right to nationalize foreign industries. We required, however, that Poland should respect our rights under the treaty and that I would expect as a matter of right as well as of courtesy that members of firms having capital in Poland should be permitted to enter Poland to judge for themselves the situation.
Rzymowski then said that treaty of 1931 does not conform to condition of 1945. I said that I had myself brought up this matter with President Bierut on Aug 4, 19457 and that my Govt is agreeably disposed to negotiate new treaty of commerce. I said, however, that as long as present treaty of 1931 is in effect both parties are bound by it. Rzymowski asked me to inform my Govt that the attitude of the Polish Govt towards compensation for the nationalization of foreign property is much more advantageous to foreign capital than is the position of the opposition and he mentioned Mikolajczyk8 and his party specifically in this connection. Rzymowski said that Minc had taken a far more liberal point of view towards foreign capital in Poland than had the Polish Peasant Party.
[Page 376]The Dept will appreciate that I am merely reporting remarks of Minister of Foreign Affairs and that this is not to be interpreted as an acceptance by me of his statements as a matter of fact.9
- Wincenty Rzymowski, Polish Foreign Minister.↩
- Józef Olszewski, Director of the Political Department of the Polish Ministry for Foreign Affairs.↩
- An officer in the Polish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. In Arthur Bliss Lane, I Saw Poland Betrayed: An American Ambassador Reports to the American People (New York, Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1948), pp. 132–133, Zebrowski is described as one of the “chief liaisons” between the Embassy and the Polish Foreign Ministry.↩
- Hilary Mine, Polish Minister of Industry. Mr. Mine’s speech of January 3, 1946, to the National Council of the Homeland on the nationalization of industrial property in Poland is described in Lane, I Saw Poland Betrayed, p. 230. A summary of the speech was reported to the Department in telegram 18, undated, from Warsaw (660C.0031/646).↩
- Reference is to the treaty of friendship, commerce and consular rights between the United States and Poland, signed at Washington, June 15, 1931. For text, see Foreign Relations, 1931, vol. ii, p. 938.↩
- The Polish Council of the National Homeland on January 3, 1946, passed a law concerning the nationalization of the basic branches of the national economy.↩
- For Ambassador Lane’s report on the points made by him on the occasion of the presentation of his credentials to Polish President Boleslaw Bierut on August 4, 1945, see telegram 29, August 6, 1945, from Warsaw, Foreign Relations, 1945, vol. v, p. 361.↩
- Stanislaw Mikolajczyk, Polish Second Deputy Premier and Minister of Agriculture and Land Reform; Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Polish Peasant Party.↩
- On January 8, 1946, Ambassador Lane reaffirmed to American correspondents in Warsaw the American position regarding Polish nationalization of industries. As reported in telegram 35, January 8, 2 p.m., from Warsaw, Lane decided to make public his conversation with Foreign Minister Rzymowski because Jakob Berman, the Polish Under Secretary of State of the Council of Ministers, had issued an erroneous version of the Ambassador’s comments on Polish nationalization (860C.5034/1–846). Regarding this incident, see Lane, I Saw Poland Betrayed, p. 231.↩