Office of the Historian

851.00/2618: Telegram

The Ambassador to the Polish Government in Exile (Biddle) to the Secretary of State

London, January 14, 1942.
[Received January 14—9:30 a.m.]

Polish Series 4. Your 31, December 22, 7 p.m.2 Yesterday I attended meeting held in St. James’ Palace when declaration of determination to bring to justice those guilty of perpetrating acts of violence against civilian populations in enemy occupied countries was signed by representatives of Belgium, Free France, Greece, Luxembourg, Poland, Norway, Netherlands, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia.3 The terms of the declaration corresponded to those summarized in my 44 of November 26, 2 p.m.,4 paragraphs 3 and 4. Meeting which was also attended by observers representing governments of United Kingdom, the Dominions, India, China and the U. S. S. R., was opened by British Foreign Secretary Eden and presided over by Polish Foreign Minister General Sikorski. Although China [was] not a signatory its representative sent a letter to the conference5 stating that his Government subscribes to principles of the declaration and intends when the time comes to apply the same principles to the Japaneseoccupying authorities in China.

[
Biddle
]
  1. Foreign Relations, 1941, vol. i, p. 450.↩
  2. See Punishment for War Crimes: The Inter-Allied Declaration Signed at St. James’s Palace, London, on 13th January, 1942, and Relative Documents (His Majesty’s Stationery Office).↩
  3. Foreign Relations, 1941, vol. i, p. 447.↩
  4. Punishment for War Crimes, p. 15.↩