Office of the Historian

860C 00/4–2546: Telegram

The Ambassador in Poland (Lane) to the Secretary of State

secret
priority
Warsaw, April 25, 1946—7 p.m.
[Received April 27—11:36 a.m.]

573. During past few weeks several Polish employees of this Embassy as well as of British and French Embassies have been interviewed by Security Police and have been invited to join UB organization so that they may report on activities of respective Embassies. When this condition was first reported to me I did not inform Dept as I fearful lest lives of persons involved would be jeopardized. As number of persons interrogated by UB has become increasingly [Page 438] greater I feel that the danger to individual has correspondingly decreased.

Procedure apparently employed by UB in almost all cases is identical, if employee refuses to join organization, he or she is threatened with death and with death of family. Employee is usually given further time to think over matter but is told that divulging info re interview with UB will be punishable by death. UB agents are also actively investigating nature of work of persons interviewed and friends received at homes of almost all Polish employees of this Embassy. British Ambassador reports to [apparent garble] similar conditions British Embassy.

Provided Dept has no objection I propose in near future as does British Ambassador to protest to FonOff re activities of Security Police endeavoring to compel Polish citizens to divulge information regarding activities of Embassy by which they are employed. Although no Polish employee of this Embassy is entrusted with confidential info or activities, it is very much to be regretted that the Polish personnel should be subjected to such threats as indicated above and I feel that in the interests of these employees as well as of our own we are fully justified in registering an emphatic protest.29

Sent to Dept as 573, repeated to Paris for Secretary of State as 77[?] to London as 92 and to Moscow as 80.

Lane
  1. In telegram 389, May 2, to Warsaw, the Department stated that it had no objection to the action suggested in this paragraph, but assumed that the Embassy was satisfied that its Polish employees would not be subject to further persecution as a result of the Embassy action (860C.00/4–2546).↩