860C.00/12–1646
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Chief of the Division of Eastern European Affairs (Thompson)
I informed Mr. Cecil90 that we had received a telegram from London stating that the British Foreign Office had informed our Embassy that General Anders contemplated visiting the United States prior to the Polish elections for the purpose of addressing an organization in New York on the situation in Poland. I pointed out that the State Department had been endeavoring to follow a general policy of allowing anyone to visit this country who was eligible to do so under our laws but that this appeared to be a rather special case. I pointed out that an address of this sort by General Anders might be considered as American interference in the Polish election campaign and that I imagined that Polish propaganda would also tie in the British Government and the Polish Resettlement Corps in England with any charges of this sort. I felt that this would probably be embarrassing to both our governments and for this reason we hoped that the question [Page 545] of granting a visa to General Anders would not arise, at least not until after the Polish elections.
Mr. Cecil said that he agreed with our estimate and undertook to inform the Foreign Office of our views. He thought it would be possible at least to delay the matter until after the elections and possibly successfully discourage General Anders from making the trip altogether without directly refusing him permission.
- Robert Cecil, First Secretary of the British Embassy.↩