760C.61/2146: Telegram

The Chargé to the Polish Government in Exile ( Schoenfeld ) to the Secretary of State

5 Poles. Reference my despatch 487, December 24,43 reporting Foreign Minister Romer’s44 statement that at Eden’s suggestion Polish Government was drawing up its views on possible coordination of activities of Polish Underground and Soviet forces and his further statement that this might be an approach to question of resumption of Soviet-Polish relations,45 I have now been given copy of aide-mémoire on this subject handed British Foreign Office by the Polish Government on December 30.

The essence of the aide-mémoire is in its final paragraph which reads:

“In view of the approaching time, when it will become necessary to issue the order for a general rising in Poland against the Germans, we declare to the British Government our readiness, jointly with the participation of the Soviet Government, to adjust political and military occupation in the war against Germany, and propose in conformity with the decision of the Polish Government of October 25, 1943, that Polish armed action should be included in the general strategic plans of the Allies. Details of this action could be agreed jointly by the representatives of the Polish, Soviet, British and American General Staffs.”

The rest of the aide-mémoire refers to the uncompromising struggle waged against Germany by Poland since September 1, 1939; alludes to Polish Government’s instruction of October 25, 1943 to the Polish Underground organization which anticipates, in agreement with the Allies, the issue of an order for a general rising (text of which was enclosed in Ambassador Biddle’s46 despatch 463, November 16, 194347); states that execution of this instruction requires that the [Page 1355] anticipated operations should be brought within the framework of the strategic plans of the Allies; denies that Communists in Poland were being murdered by order of the Polish authorities although Polish population is exposed to terrible reprisals, arising in some cases out of the activities of Soviet partisans; and cites past efforts on the Polish side to reach an understanding on Polish-Soviet cooperation looking toward consolidation of effort against the common enemy.

Full text of aide-mémoire is being sent air mail.48

Prime Minister Mikolajczyk tells me he understands the British have taken up the matter with Soviet Government but that as yet there has been no reply. I asked whether he thought the problem would be worked out. He said he personally had doubts. It had not been possible to work it out in “the best times” of the Polish-Soviet agreement of July 30, 1941.49

[Schoenfeld]
  1. Foreign Relations, 1943, vol. iii, p. 492.
  2. Tadeusz Romer, Polish Minister for Foreign Affairs in the cabinet of Prime Minister Stanislaw Mikolajczyk.
  3. For correspondence concerning the interest of the United States in the Polish Government in Exile and in its relations with the Soviet Union, see pp. 1216 ff.
  4. Anthony J. Drexel Biddle, Jr., American Ambassador to the Polish Government in Exile, who resigned on January 22, 1944, in order to enter military service.
  5. Not printed.
  6. Forwarded in Polish Series despatch 493, January 9, 1944; not printed.
  7. Agreement for mutual aid, with a protocol, signed at London on July 30, 1941; for text, see British and Foreign State Papers, vol. cxliv, p. 869; and see telegram 3292, July 30, 1941, from London, Foreign Relations, 1941, vol. i, p. 243.