860C.00/10–1746
The British Embassy to the Department of State
Ref: 1212/–/46
Memorandum
His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom have been giving urgent consideration to the implications of the recent Polish Electoral Law, the text of which, together with the comments of His Majesty’s Ambassador at Warsaw, has now been received in London.
- 2.
- It appears to His Majesty’s Government that while the law contains such loopholes that it will enable the elections to be falsified, its actual provisions do not seem to provide very solid ground for objection except in so far as the requirements of His Majesty’s Government are not met in respect of representation on electoral commissions and the publication of results immediately in each voting district.
- [Here follows an analysis of those provisions of the Polish electoral law which could be used by the Government to falsify the election results.]
- 6.
- In view of the circumstances in which the negotiations for an electoral bloc have broken down, His Majesty’s Government feel that M. Mikolajczyk had no alternative but to decide to contest the election. As regards the possibility of a boycott, His Majesty’s Government hope that M. Mikolajczyk will continue to follow the advice which His Majesty’s Government have always given him and will not resort to this measure. On the other hand, if a large proportion of the Peasant’s Party candidates are disallowed and numbers of their supporters disenfranchised, as would be possible under the terms of the Electoral Law, it will hardly be reasonable for His Majesty’s Government to go on advising M. Mikolajczyk against a boycott.
- 7.
- In the light of the foregoing it is considered that His Majesty’s Government and the United States Government should inform the Polish Government that they have taken note of the Electoral Law as passed by the National Council for the Home Land, but that they will not regard the terms of the Yalta and Moscow Agreements and the undertakings given at Potsdam as having been fulfilled if all democratic parties do not enjoy equal facilities to conduct electoral campaigns freely without arrest or threat of arrest and without discriminatory restrictions of their election activities and if all these parties are not represented on all electoral commissions at all levels. At the same time, His Majesty’s Government propose to encourage the publication as frequently as possible of unfavourable comments appearing in the British press on the lack of freedom in connexion [Page 511] with the Polish elections and also comments deprecating an electoral bloc. Such comments would be given full publicity in the B.B.C. broadcasts in the Polish language.
- 8.
- As regards the question of economic pressure on Poland, His Majesty’s Government are agreeable, so far as they are concerned, to it being made known that the provision of financial assistance for Poland will be dependent on the fulfilment of the Yalta and Moscow Agreements and of the undertakings given at Potsdam and on all parties enjoying equal facilities. As the United States Government is aware, His Majesty’s Government are at present suspending the ratification of the financial agreement whereby the Poles will receive £3,000,000 in gold and £6,000,000 worth of surplus stores. His Majesty’s Government hope that the United States Government, for their part, may be able to act on the lines suggested in the last paragraph of this Embassy’s memorandum of the 5th July, 1946.
- 9.
- Finally, while this is more a matter for the United States Government, His Majesty’s Government, for their part, would see no objection to an exception being made as regards a loan for the purchase of machinery for the coal mining industry provided that it is granted in return for an appreciable increase in coal exports to Western European countries.
Washington, 17 October,
1946.