360c. 1121 Galewska, Mina/4: Telegram

The Chargé in Poland (Nielsen) to the Secretary of State

79. Consul General’s telegram to you August 26, 11 a.m.11 Foreign Office will endeavor to have the appeal in Mina Galewska case12 [Page 406] quashed or if unsuccessful in this, it will try to have the appeal heard at a very early date. It is unable at present to state when Galewska will be able to leave Poland.

Foreign Office states that the various matters which have been the subject of representations by the Embassy in connection with arrests of American travellers for violations of currency regulations will be discussed this afternoon by Council of Ministers. Foreign Office hopes that the regulations will be modified. Acting upon suggestion made by the Embassy it will request the Ministry of Finance to issue to customs officers at border stations new and vigorous instructions to the effect that such officers must not treat as though they were smugglers travellers who through ignorance or neglect violate the regulations.

Nielsen
  1. Not printed.
  2. Mrs. Mina Galewska was arrested on July 9, 1936, at Sniatyn-Zalucie (Zalucze) while in transit on a through train to Rumania on a charge of smuggling $320 which she had failed to declare on entering Poland. On August 11, at her trial in Kolomyja, she received a suspended sentence of 6 months in jail and was fined 100 zlotys. The prosecutor, however, appealed the verdict as being too lenient, and because of an allegation that the defendant had tried to bribe a Polish customs official. After further detention in Poland, on bail, persistent American intercession took place, until Mrs. Galewska crossed into Rumania on September 29, 1936. (360c.1121/13; 360c.1121 Galewska, Mina/1, 5, 7, 20, 22, 32)