840.70/10–2844
The Acting Secretary of State to the Soviet Ambassador (Gromyko)
Excellency: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of Your Excellency’s note of October 28, 1944 relative to the desire of the Polish Committee of National Liberation to send a delegation to the European Inland Transportation Organization Conference which is now taking place in London.
The European Inland Transportation Conference was called for the sole purpose of coordinating technical questions relating to European transport in order to expedite the prosecution of the war against the common enemy and synchronize these efforts during the immediate post-hostilities period. In view of the technical character of the matters under discussion and the importance attached to the successful conclusion of the questions being considered by the conference, the United States Government does not feel that political questions of such a far-reaching nature as those raised by the Polish Committee of National Liberation should be introduced into a conference of this kind. Moreover, it is the understanding of the United States Government that the negotiations initiated recently in Moscow by Premier Mikolajczyk have not been concluded.94
For these reasons the United States Government cannot entertain the request of the Polish Committee of National Liberation contained in your note under reference.
The United States Government hopes that the Soviet Government, after giving consideration to the above aspects of the question, will not permit the request of the Polish Committee to stand in the way of continued Soviet participation in the Allied discussion on the problems of European inland transport.
Accept [etc.]
- See vol. iii, pp. 1321–1335.↩