740.00116 EW 1939/10–244
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Deputy Director of the Office of European Affairs (Matthews)
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Mr. Ciechanowski then said that he was in a most depressed state of mind, partly because of the news of the tragic surrender of General Bor’s insurgent groups who have been fighting so valiantly in Warsaw for the past 63 days, and partly because of the Russian attacks on General Bor (Tadeusz Komorowsky) who has just been appointed in place of Sosnkowski.90 He said that he felt that this meant but one thing: Stalin is decided to have nothing further to do with the Polish Government in London or any efforts to work out a compromise solution, unless he finds that the reaction of public opinion in England and the United States, and the reaction of the British and American governments, is such as to make him reverse his decision. The Ambassador said that in his view it was most important at this time that the American and British governments should show no sign of “abandonment” of the Mikolajczyk Government. The least sign of weakness, he said, would mean an All Clear signal to Stalin to pursue his present course. This course, he said, will inevitably lead to civil [Page 1321] war in Poland. I asked why he thought Stalin wanted civil war in Poland in view of his earlier declarations that a strong and friendly Poland was strongly desired by the Soviet Government. The Polish Ambassador replied that he felt that Stalin had changed his mind on this question and wanted to be able to say to the world: “You see, there is nothing but chaos and civil war in Poland. The Poles cannot settle their own affairs. We Russians must therefore perform the task of maintaining order and temporarily administering the country.” A course such as this, Mr. Ciechanowski said, would permit the Russians to eliminate elements in Poland whom they consider unfriendly and to set up a regime of their own choosing. In conclusion, he reiterated the hope that we would show no weakening of the “moral support” which he said the President had promised Mr. Mikolajczyk at the time of his visit.
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- Lieutenant General Komorowski was named by Mikolajczyk on September 29 as Commander in Chief of the Polish Army succeeding General Sosnkowski.↩