Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1944, The British Commonwealth and Europe, Volume III

President Roosevelt to the British Prime Minister (Churchill)²⁴

[Warm Springs, Georgia,] 15 December, 1944.

674. I have seen the newspaper reports of your statement in the House [of Commons] on the Polish question.²⁵ In order that we may cooperate fully in this matter I would appreciate receiving the benefit of your ideas as to what steps we can now take in regard to this question. Particularly I would like to have your evaluation of the possibility of Mikolajczyk’s coming back into power with sufficient authority to carry out his plans and what action you feel we should take in the event the Lublin Committee should declare itself to be the provisional government of Poland and Stalin should recognize it as such.²⁶ In view of this possibility I wonder if it would be helpful if I should send a message to Stalin suggesting that he postpone any positive action on the Polish question until the three of us can get together.²⁷

You will recall the contents of the letter I sent to Mikolajczyk by Mr. Harriman which he showed to you and which outlines our policy in regard to Poland. I anticipate strong pressure here for the position of this Government to be made clear, and I may therefore have to make public in some form the four points outlining our position contained in my letter to Mikolajczyk referred to above.

Knowing that we have in mind the same basic objectives in regard to Poland I want to be sure to coordinate with you any steps which I may contemplate in this matter.

Roosevelt

24. Copy of telegram obtained from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, N.Y.
25. Prime Minister Churchill delivered an extensive speech in the House of Commons on December 15, 1944, about the problems of Poland, its frontiers, and the difficulties in the way of satisfactory solutions. (Parliamentary Debates, House of Commons, 5th series, vol. 406, cols. 1478–1489.) Secretary of State Stettinius sent a telegram on December 15 to President Roosevelt, staying temporarily at Warm Springs, Georgia, in which he reminded the President of the United States position on the Polish question as formulated in the President’s letter of November 17 to Prime Minister Mikolajczyk, coupled with the suggestion that “in view of the uncertainty as to Churchill’s plans” this present telegram should be sent to him. For text of the Secretary’s telegram to the President, see Foreign Relations, The Conferences at Malta and Yalta, 1945, pp. 214–215.
26. In telegram No. 854, December 16, 1944, Prime Minister Churchill told the President that the British Government did not see any immediate prospect for Mikolajczyk to return to power, that it did not intend to recognize the Polish Committee of National Liberation in Lublin, and that it would continue to regard the Government in Exile at London as the legal Polish government (Hyde Park Papers).
27. Prime Minister Churchill in his telegram No. 853, December 16, 1944, approved the proposal that President Roosevelt should send a message to Premier Stalin suggesting that the latter should take no positive action on the Polish question until the three could meet together. He hoped that the President could send his message on this same day, because he feared that Stalin might make some move to recognize the Lublin Committee as the government of Poland (Hyde Park Papers).