President Roosevelt to the Ghairmcm of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Soviet Union (Stalin)28
136. In view of the interest raised in this country by Prime Minister Churchill’s statement in the House of Commons yesterday and the strong pressure we are under to make known our position in regard to Poland, I believe it may be necessary in the next few days for this Government to issue some statement on the subject. This statement, if issued, will outline our attitude somewhat along the following lines:
[There are omitted here the four points of the proposed statement to be made in regard to the United States position on Poland. This telegram was delayed in reaching the Embassy in Moscow, where it arrived on December 20. Meanwhile the statement on Poland had been issued on December 18, by the Department of State. In this [Page 1346] form the wording differed slightly, and Ambassador Harriman attached a copy of this text in full, instead of the earlier version as telegraphed, when this message was sent to Stalin. The statement issued on December 18 is printed infra. The earlier wording as sent in the message of December 16, from President Roosevelt to Stalin, is printed in Foreign Relations, The Conferences at Malta and Yalta, 1945, pages 217–218.]
The proposed statement, as you will note, will contain nothing, I am sure, that is not known to you as the general attitude of this Government and is I believe in so far as it goes in general accord with the results of your discussion with Prime Minister Churchill in Moscow in the autumn, and for this reason, I am sure, you will welcome it.
I feel it is of the highest importance that until the three of us can get together and thoroughly discuss this troublesome question there be no action on any side which would render our discussions more difficult. I have seen indications that the Lublin Committee may be intending to give itself the status of a provisional government of Poland. I fully appreciate the desirability from your point of view of having a clarification of Polish authority before your armies move further into Poland. I very much hope, however, that because of the great political implications which such a step would entail you would find it possible to refrain from recognizing the Lublin Committee as a government of Poland before we meet, which I hope will be immediately after my inauguration on January 20. Could you not until that date continue to deal with the Committee in its present form.29 I know that Prime Minister Churchill shares my views on this point.
- Copy of telegram obtained from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, N.Y.↩
- Further communications exchanged, discussing the prospect of early recognition of the Polish Committee of National Liberation (Lublin) as the provisional government of Poland by Stalin before a meeting of the three could be held, were: Stalin to Roosevelt, December 27, 1944; Roosevelt to Stalin, December 30, 1944; and Stalin to Roosevelt, January 1, 1945, post, pp. 1442, 1444, and 1445, respectively. See also Foreign Relations, The Conferences at Malta and Yalta, 1945, pp. 221–223, 224–225, and 225–226.↩