the minds and in the intentions of the responsible officers of that Government.

The United States Government is always prepared to encourage, on a fair and reciprocal basis, the free exchange of information between nations. It can, however, only regard as hypocritical or naive the attitude of a Government which, having practiced reprisals in the name of legality, then proceeds to denounce as "reprisals" the practice, by another Government, of the principle of reciprocity. The Polish Government also alleged in its note of August 14, 1951, which, it may be noted, was issued as a press release three days later by the Polish Embassy at Washington, that the closing of the Polish Research and Information Service proves that the United States Government wishes to separate the American people behind an Iron Curtain from all news of the peaceful attitude and activities of the Polish nation.

The facts which are relevant to this allegation must be known to the Polish Government. It is a matter of common knowledge where the Iron Curtain was created and where it is maintained by governments exercising a monopoly of police and political power and claiming to exercise a monopoly over all sources of public information. It is also a matter of common knowledge, reported almost daily in the free press of the world, from which direction and from which countries, men, women, and children escape, at desperate risk, to join the community of freedom in the Western World.

The extent to which the contents of this note are made known to the people of Poland by the Polish press and radio will provide a significant commentary on the location of the Iron Curtain.

The Government of the United States rejects the contention of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the activities of the United States Information Service in Poland went beyond the accepted scope of normal activity of a diplomatic mission or were against the interests of peace.

The United States carries on these activities as part of its diplomatic functions in sixty-four nations, where, far from being subject to police harassment and official impediments, the activities are welcomed by the governments concerned, which in many cases cooperate heartily with the United States Information Service in its work among their people. Only in Communist China, Hungary, Rumania, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and now Poland has the United States Information Service been compelled by governmental action to suspend operations.

The many governments that welcome and cooperate with the United States Information Service are surely not incompetent judges of what constitutes normal diplomatic activity. Nor can they be considered to be insensitive as to what constitutes diplomatic privilege. The United States Government also rejects the assertion of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the publications of the United States Information Service in Poland spread war propaganda and propaganda hostile to Poland. The publications at the United States Information Service in Poland, notably the Daily Wireless

Bulletin, undertook, among other things, to provide those citizens of Poland who desired to be informed, with accurate accounts of the views expressed and the positions taken by the responsible governmental officials of the United States, in the United Nations and elsewhere. Not less importantly, the Bulletin continually reported the views of the duly elected representatives of the people of the United States, and of the responsible journals of fact and opinion in the United States.

To allege, as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs endeavors to do, that the publication of such material is to engage in war mongering is to deny the validity of the open and democratic processes by which free public opinion is formed. It is only in this way that free legislative assemblies can function, that the executive authority of a free government can exercise leadership, and that sound and just international judgments as expressed in the United Nations, of which Poland is a member, can be formulated.

The fact that these democratic processes involve the expression of views repugnant to those held by the present Government of Poland, does not conjure them out of existence or render them propaganda for war. On the contrary, these views are held by governments and individuals keenly desirous of maintaining international peace, concerned by developments threatening it, and determined to forestall the betrayal of peace by all possible means.

A government which undertakes to deny its people access to such information, the right freely to judge the validity of the views expressed, accordingly assumes the most serious responsibility. To attempt to keep people in ignorance of the facts of the world in which they live, of the forces at work in it, and the reactions which these forces can create, is not to work for peace but for those miscalculations and errors that in the past have often led to misunderstandings between nations. History abundantly proves that governments which adopt the policy of denying their peoples access to all the avenues to truth have done so at their own loss.

50. POLISH CHARGES REGARDING ALLEGED SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITIES: Note From the American Embassy at Warsaw to the Polish Foreign Ministry, February 9, 1953 1

The Embassy of the United States of America presents its compliments to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and on instructions of the United States Government has the honor to reject categorically the unfounded charges in the Ministry's note of January 16, 1953,2 alleging aggressive attempts by the Government of the United States on the security of Poland. With specific reference to the last paragraph of the Ministry's note of January 16, the United States Govern

1 Department of State Bulletin, Feb. 23, 1953, pp. 304-305. See also the U.S. note of Mar. 28, 1953; ibid., Apr. 20, 1953, p. 578.

2 Not printed.

ment rejects the allegations of the Polish Government that an aircraft belonging to the Armed forces of the United States violated Polish territory on November 4, 1952, and that the United States has organized aggressive "intelligence and subversion" on Polish territory. The charges are very clearly a part of a larger pattern of accusations made with increasing vehemence during the past few months by a number of governments dominated by a single totalitarian political party. As the Polish Government is well aware, these recent charges have been leveled against Christians and Jews, Communists and former Communists, workers, peasants and intellectuals, and even against many once prominent and trusted officials occupying positions of great power in the very governments which are now making the charges.

The free world, and no doubt many in that part of the world which is not free, has viewed these accusations with profound skepticism and deep disgust, seeing in them the characteristic excesses of men hysterically fearful that they will lose the absolute power which has corrupted them. To the extent, however, that this macabre process of almost daily accusation actually reflects a genuine struggle of men to be free and masters of their own thoughts and souls, the Government and people of the United States cannot be disinterested.

5

Sympathy and concern for the welfare and aspirations to freedom of peoples of other lands has been a continuing and important feature of American history from the beginning of the United States as an independent country. The names of Pulaski and Kosciuszko,2 of Kossuth and Krzyzanowski,* of Paderewski and the elder Masaryk, all of whom found haven and support in the United States during their struggles for the freedom of their homelands bear eloquent testimony to the continuing American interest in the liberty and independence of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

The Polish Government in its note of January 16 alleges that while the American nation desires peaceful relations with the Polish nation, the policy of the Government of the United States is anti-Polish. The absurdity of this contention is apparent to anyone acquainted with the democratic and representative nature of the political institutions of the United States which ensure, contrary to the situation which prevails in totalitarian regimes, the faithful reflection of the popular will in the policies followed by the Government of the United

1 Count Kazimierz Pulawski (1748-1779) served in the United States as a cavalry officer (1777-1779).

Tadeusz Kosciuszko (1746-1817) served in the United States as an engineering officer (1776-1783) before returning to Poland and again resided in the United States as a private citizen (1797-1798).

Lajos Kossuth (1802-1894) spent the years 1851-1852 in the United States after the collapse of the insurrection he had headed in Hungary.

Vladimir Bonaventure Krzyzanowski (1824-1877) came to the United States in 1846, served in the American Civil War, buried in Arlington Cemetery. Ignace Jan Paderewski (1860-1941) spent most of the latter part of his life in the United States.

Tomas Garrigue Masaryk (1850-1937) spent some time in the United States in the World War I period in connection with the establishment of the new state of Czechoslovakia.

States. In any event, the question of whether the policy of the United States Government is anti-Polish is one which the United States is happy to leave to the judgment of history, confident that the record clearly shows that from its earliest beginnings as an independent country, the United States has always been, and remains, a firm friend of Poland.

It is also impossible to understand the grounds on which the Ministry bases the fantastic allegation that the United States Government desires to transform Poland into a colony of the United States. It is understandable that under the conditions which prevail in Poland at the present time many citizens of Poland might entertain legitimate fears regarding the possible reduction of Poland to the status of a colony, but it is certainly not on the Government of the United States that responsibility for these unfortunate conditions rests.

A very few years ago both Poland and the United States fought side by side in defense of their national existence against an evil and powerful enemy. For several years after that war, the United States, through official and unofficial channels, undertook a massive and varied program of economic assistance to the people of Poland. As a part of that assistance, UNRRA,' which was financed largely by the United States, delivered to Poland food, clothing, medical, industrial and agricultural supplies in the amount of $477,927,000. This was more than was supplied to any other European country, and was onesixth of the total assistance granted to all war-devastated countries throughout the world.

Moreover, it was the Polish Government itself which announced in July 1947 a decision not to participate in the European economic recovery program which offered additional great possibilities for rebuilding war damage in Poland and for raising the standard of living of the hard-pressed Polish people.

5

In its note of January 16, 1953 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs saw fit to return to the subject of Section 101 of the United States Mutual Security Act of 1951,2 and to repeat the baseless charges contained in its note[s] of December 19, 19513 and January 12, 1952.4 As the Polish Government was informed more than a year ago, Section 101 of the Mutual Security Act is intended to provide assistance to victims of oppression, where such assistance has been determined to contribute to the defense of the North Atlantic Area. purely humanitarian program for extending care and assistance in resettlement to refugees which is now being actively carried out under this legislation is completely consistent with the policy of the United Nations of rendering assistance to people who have been forced to flee from their homelands.

The

With regard to the allegations in the Polish note under reference attempting to establish a connection between the Embassy at Warsaw

1 United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.

2 Act of Oct. 10, 1951; 65 Stat. 373.

* Not printed.

• Not printed.

5 In a note not printed.

and the murder of a Polish radio announcer, the Government of the United States states categorically that these allegations are groundless, and that the Government of Poland must be aware of that fact.

Concerning the further allegation that United States Government information activities have sown hatred toward Poland, it is to be noted that the aim of these activities with respect to Poland is to provide accurate news and commentaries on important developments to the Polish people who, cut off from such information by their own authorities, are naturally eager to be informed by other means. As the Government of the United States observed to the Polish Embassy at Washington in a note of September 20, 1951, history abundantly proves that governments which adopt the policy of denying their peoples access to all the avenues to truth have done so at their own loss.

During the past century and three quarters Poland has several times been partitioned by powerful neighboring states, and at times has been occupied by one of them. During these tragic years of Polish history, no people and no government has had a warmer admiration for the unquenchable Polish love of liberty than the people and Government of the United States, and none has had a firmer faith in the final outcome of the Polish struggle for liberty and national independence.

2

3

51. KATYN MASSACRE: Note From the United States Representative to the United Nations to the Secretary-General, February 10, 19531

EXCELLENCY: On September 18, 1951, the House of Representatives of the United States Congress provided for the establishment of a Committee to conduct an investigation and study the facts, evidence, and circumstances of the Katyn massacre, committed against thousands of Polish Army officers and civilians during World War II.5

The Committee held hearings in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy. In the course of its inquiry into the responsibility for the massacre the Committee heard testimony from 81 witnesses, studied 183 exhibits, and studied and received 100 depositions taken from witnesses who could not appear at the hearings. In addition, the Committee staff has questioned more than 200 other individuals who offered to appear as witnesses but whose information was mostly of a corroborative nature. The account of the Committee's inquiry is set forth in the seven volumes entitled "Hearings Before the Select Committee to Conduct an Investigation of the Facts, Evidence, and Circumstances of the Katyn Forest Massacre", two

Trygve Lie.

* Department of State Bulletin, Feb. 23, 1953, pp. 322-323.

3 H. Res. 390, 82d Cong., 1st sess.