67. Editorial Note
On March 3, Ambassador Beam opened negotiations in Warsaw with Polish Government officials for a settlement of American property claims resulting from nationalization and other property-takings by Poland. Acting Minister of Finance Julian Kole and Franciszek Zapasnik of the Ministry of Finance headed the Polish delegation. Beam made an opening statement and referred to the joint statement of June 7, 1957, by [Page 176] which the United States and Poland agreed to negotiate a lump-sum settlement. The text of this joint statement is printed in Department of State Bulletin, June 24, 1957, pages 1004–1009. The Ambassador also referred to the agreement that the negotiations would include a joint examination of general categories or groups and not a case-by-case examination. In addition, he outlined the criteria by which the United States, pursuant to the exchange of notes, had eliminated certain claims in order to arrive at a tentative estimate of the total amount of apparently allowable claims.
At the second meeting on the claims question, held March 23, the Polish officials proposed that the disparity between the large number and value of claims registered with the United States, and the much smaller number of claims of which the Polish Government had a record, should be reconciled. The Polish representatives proposed examination of a few of the main claims. Ambassador Beam reiterated the U.S. Government’s opposition to a case-by-case examination but suggested that the Polish Government send two representatives to Washington to learn more about the claims. A copy of the memorandum from Merchant to Dillon, April 24, which describes the first two meetings, is in Department of State, Central Files, 248.1141/4–2459. The discussion at the March 3 and March 23 meetings is summarized in telegrams 1135 and 1239 from Warsaw, March 3 and 24, respectively. (Ibid., 248.1141/3–359 and 248.1141/3–2459)
While the claims negotiations were being held in Warsaw, the U.S.-Polish economic assistance negotiations took place in Washington. At the first meeting on March 4, the Polish representatives outlined their general economic situation and presented their requests for various types of assistance. The Polish participants were headed by Tadeusz Lychowski, Economic Minister of the Polish Embassy, and included Edward Iwaszkiewicz and Stanislaw Raczkowski. The U.S. participants included W. T. M. Beale, James L. Colbert, Officer in Charge of Economic Affairs in the Office of Eastern European Affairs, and representatives from the Department of Agriculture, Department of Commerce, the Export-Import Bank, and the International Cooperation Administration.
At the second meeting on March 23, Lychowski answered a series of questions about the general economic situation in Poland posed in advance of the meeting. In his responses, Lychowski explained the internal wage structure, consumer goods production, the difficulty of increasing imports from the West, and other topics. At the third meeting on March 25, Lychowski requested that the United States extend most-favored-nation treatment to Poland’s exports. The minutes of these first three meetings are Washington National Records Center, Warsaw Embassy Files: FRC 65 A 160, 500 Economic Matters 1959: US Aid to Poland—Talk and Position Papers. Some additional documentation on [Page 177] these negotiations is Department of State, Central Files 748.5–MSP and 411.4841.
Two additional U.S.-Polish committees met during March in Washington as part of the economic assistance negotiations. The Committee on Agricultural Commodities held five meetings, March 5, 10, 13, 18, and 27, to consider the requests for agricultural aid under a possible P.L. 480 agreement. The Committee on Non-Agricultural Commodities met on March 20, 24, and 31 to consider Poland’s non-agricultural requests. The minutes of these Committee meetings are in the Washington National Records Center, Warsaw Embassy Files: FRC 65 A 160, 500 Economic Matters: US Aid to Poland—Talk and Position Papers.
At the 401st meeting of the National Security Council, April 2, during a briefing on U.S. policy toward Poland, Douglas Dillon, Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, commented briefly on the negotiations between the United States and Poland:
“Two sets of negotiations, he said, were going on simultaneously, one group here and one in Warsaw. Next week our Ambassador in Warsaw would ask for $125 million as compensation to the U.S. for U.S. property in Poland which had been nationalized by the Polish Government. Turning to the negotiations in Washington, Secretary Dillon explained that the Polish delegates were not only asking for another large PL-480 grant but a whole list of other items of economic assistance. For economic assistance to Poland we have actually earmarked some $15 million within the Mutual Security Program. Secretary Dillon made it clear that we propose to link our economic assistance to Poland very tightly with our demand for compensation for nationalized U.S. property in Poland.”
The National Security Council also noted and discussed the OCB Report of February 11, Document 64. (Memorandum of discussion by Gleason; Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, NSC Records)