Foreign Relations of the United States, 1946, Eastern Europe, The Soviet Union, Volume VI

860C.5034/12–1146

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Acting Secretary of State

[Washington,] December 11, 1946.

Participants:	Mr. Dean Acheson—U
	Mr. Llewellyn E. Thompson—EE
	Mr. Minc, Polish Minister of Industry
	Mr. Zoltowski, Financial Counselor, Polish Embassy
	Mr. Litynski, Commercial Counselor, Polish Embassy
	Mr. Lychowski, of the Polish State Planning Board

After an exchange of the usual courtesies, Mr. Minc said that he had come to the United States as a delegate to the United Nations Assembly and to the UNRRA meeting. Since his Government had learned of the desire of the United States to settle the question of compensation for American property nationalized in Poland, his Government had authorized him to discuss this matter with the United States Government. He had understood that in discussing this question, the United States authorities had linked it to the question of a cotton loan to Poland, as well as the unfreezing of Polish gold and certification of the Bank Polski. He said his Government saw no connection between these matters and the question of compensation. As a practical matter the question of compensation was directly related to the Polish balance of payments. Since the chief Polish export was coal, the coal question was also closely related to this matter and he would like to discuss this during his visit.

I said that the United States Government recognized that this matter had to be considered in relation to Poland’s economic situation and in this connection said that during the discussion we would also wish to discuss commercial policy matters since the general question of trade policy was, of course, directly related to that of the balance of payments and Poland’s ability to acquire foreign exchange. In this connection I mentioned the International Trade Organization and information on Poland’s bilateral trade agreements.

Mr. Minc said he would be glad to discuss these questions.

I said there were two other matters which we would like to discuss with the Minister during his visit here. One was the question of an aviation agreement upon which we were very anxious to make progress.

Mr. Minc said he had not anticipated that this question would come up and had no experts with him but he would, of course, be very glad to talk about the question with American officials.

I said the other matter we wished to settle was the urgent problem of the situation of our Embassy in Poland due to the fact that it was obliged to obtain Polish currency at the rate of 100 zlotys to one dollar whereas the rise in prices and in the open market rate for the dollar was so considerable that the situation of the staff of our Embassy was desperate to the point that they were threatening to quit.

I said that Mr. Clayton would be free to receive the Minister at five o’clock this afternoon if this was satisfactory to him. Mr. Minc agreed.⁶⁷

I said that we seemed to be in general agreement on the subjects to be discussed and that I hoped Mr. Clayton would be able to initiate the general discussions on Friday.⁶⁸

Mr. Zoltowski stated that they had informed the press before the meeting that Mr. Minc was merely making a courtesy call but that they were concerned as to what to tell the press in the future.

I suggested that they might wish to say that in the course of their calls upon Mr. Clayton and myself a general review of Polish-American economic relations was undertaken.

(Subsequently Mr. Minc inquired of Mr. Thompson whether Mr. Acheson had replied to his remarks concerning the inability of the Polish Government to see any connection between the question of a cotton loan and the unfreezing of Polish funds with the question of compensation. Mr. Thompson said that Mr. Acheson had not replied to his remarks on this subject but pointed out that he had previously told Mr. Zoltowski that it would be easier for us to settle such matters as the unfreezing of Polish funds if such questions as compensation for nationalized property were satisfactorily settled.)

Dean Acheson

67. Telegram 1182, December 11, 7 p.m., to Warsaw, reported that in conversation with Under Secretary Clayton that same day Mr. Minc had agreed to a temporary measure under which the Polish Government would make available to the Embassy in Warsaw 100 million zlotys. The details of the settlement, which were on terms satisfactory to the United States, would be telegraphed to Warsaw later. (860C.5151/12–1146)
68. Conversations between the Polish delegation headed by Mr. Minc and American representatives led by Under Secretary Clayton began at 4 p.m., December 13. 1946.