860C.51/7–546
The Department of State to the British Embassy
Memorandum
The understanding of the British Foreign Office with respect to the credits to Poland which were authorized on April 24, 1946, as set forth in the British Embassy’s memorandum of July 5, 1946, does not agree in certain respects with the State Department’s position as outlined at various times in public utterances by officials of the Department, as well as in conversations with members of the British Embassy. At the time that deliveries of surplus property to Poland were suspended under the $50,000,000 credit, it was announced that this action had been taken because of the failure of the Polish Government to fulfill certain commitments taken at the time the credits were authorized. These commitments concerned (1) the publication of the texts of credit notes in Poland, (2) the matter of censorship of American correspondents’ despatches from Poland, and (3) the furnishing to the United States Government of the texts of Poland’s economic agreements with other countries.
As the Department announced publicly on June 26, the Polish Government had published the texts of the notes concerning the credits and the question of censorship had been satisfactorily clarified. The remaining commitment which the Polish Government had failed to fulfill, namely, the furnishing of the texts of its economic agreements [Page 475] remained the only impediment to the resumption of surplus property deliveries and the implementation of the Export-Import Bank credit of $40,000,000. On the strength of recent additional assurances received from the Polish Government, however, and in view of the urgent need of taking action in connection with surplus property disposal in Europe, it had been decided to resume surplus property deliveries to Poland. The contract for the Export-Import Bank credit of $40,000,000 will not be signed however until full information concerning Poland’s economic agreements is actually received.
It is noted that the British Foreign Office expresses the hope that the United States Government will hold up the final conclusion of the Export-Import Bank credit, or threaten to suspend the deliveries of railway materials for which it is intended, until Poland has satisfactorily fulfilled its political commitments. It has been the position of the Department of State that no new conditions should be imposed on Poland as prerequisites for carrying out the Export-Import Bank credit and the Department has not contemplated requiring any new assurances concerning the freedom of the forthcoming elections as a prerequisite to signing the loan contract. Accordingly, when the Polish Provisional Government furnishes the required information concerning its economic agreements with other countries, appropriate steps can be taken to authorize the Export-Import Bank to complete the credit arrangements.
It is contemplated that if and when the implementation of the Export-Import Bank credit is effected, the Department will release to the press a statement which will refer again to the obligations undertaken by the Polish Provisional Government, with especial emphasis upon its promise to hold free and unfettered elections in Poland this year. Meanwhile the Department is currently studying the Polish political situation with a view to determining what further action might usefully be taken that would contribute to the holding of free elections in Poland, a matter to which this Government continues to attach the greatest importance.