Office of the Historian

740.0011 European War 1939/16784

The Polish Ambassador (Ciechanowski) to the Secretary of State 18

[No.] 1–WB/SZ–tjn–1
Washington, November 10, 1941.

Sir: I have received from my Government the official texts of:

1)
the declaration of Count Raczyński, Polish Acting Foreign Minister19 at the Second Inter-Allied Meeting of September 24, 1941,
2)
the joint declaration of the Polish and the Czechoslovak Governments to the same Second Inter-Allied meeting of September 24, 1941,

copies of which I have the honor to enclose.20

The Polish Government desire me to explain that the declaration of Count Raczyński to the Second Inter-Allied Meeting of September 24, 1941, was prompted by the feeling that the declaration of President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill of August 14, 1941, would give rise to numerous interpretations and that it was essential in the interest of the Polish State that the Polish Government should without delay express their interpretation of this most important joint declaration made on behalf of the United States and Great Britain with regard to the basic war aims.

Polish interpretation of the declaration, as expressed in the declaration of Count Raczyński, stresses the following points:

1)
The absolute necessity of differentiation in the treatment of aggressor nations responsible for the war and the nations victims of aggression;
2)
the fact that Polish losses and damages caused to Poland in all realms of national life are much greater in proportion to those of other nations and that this fact calls for just retribution;
3)
the necessity of rendering null and void and of rectifying all anti-Polish acts and measures perpetrated by Germany in the course of its aggression and occupation of Poland;
4)
the necessity of the return to legality which, in the case of Poland, requires that Poland should not be territorially reduced after this war and that she should obtain a broad and direct access to the sea,21 as well as fair chances of economic development in proportion to the requirements of her population;
5)
the opinion of the Polish Government that it is essential and indeed indispensable that the United States and Great Britain should continue their direct interest in the affairs of the European Continent and the establishment and maintenance of European peace. The [Page 260] Polish Government regard this as an essential safeguard of future security and prosperity.

The joint declaration of the Polish and Czechoslovak Governments stresses the community of interests of that region of Central Europe and is conceived as a joint initiative for the setting up of a new European order based upon a permanent system of general security, prosperity and social justice.

Accept [etc.]

J. Ciechanowski
  1. The receipt of this note was acknowledged by the Department on November 18, 1941.↩
  2. Count Edward Raczyński succeeded as Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs following the resignation of August Zaleski after the signature of the Polish-Soviet agreement of July 30, 1941.↩
  3. Not printed.↩
  4. The expression refers to the 13th of President Woodrow Wilson’s 14 points of January 8, 1918, Foreign Relations, 1918, supp. 1, Vol. i, p. 15.↩