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J. 333305- M ON O-State Galley 408 UNCORRECTED GALLEY PROOF press. Unfortunately, forty-eight hours after the President had spoken to members of the Committee about a closely guarded secret- Russia's demand for sixteen seats in the General Assembly-it had appeared in the newspapers. VARIOUS DEVELOPMENTS ABROAD Europe. The Polish Ambassador called on me Tuesday morning January 9th asking what the next step of our Government would be on the Polish situation. The Ambassador pressed me to say that I personally felt it would be advantageous for Mikolajczyk to be taken back into the Government. I replied that it would be unwise to stir the matter up at this time, that he would have to be patient pending the outcome of certain conversations the President hoped to have. Actually, the Department favored an arrangement regarding the Polish boundary whereby Poland would acquire most of East Prussia, German Upper Silesia, the eastern portion of Pomerania, and other former German holdings. Resulting from Soviet recognition, the Lublin Committee in Poland was gaining increasing support as a government. The Soviet Government took an aggressive attitude toward our releasing Soviet nationals captured by our forces, regardless of retal- iatory measures the Germans might take against American prisoners of war; and it appeared urgent for us to express our views emphati- cally as soon as we had received all necessary information from the War Department. When Secretary Stimson inquired regarding our policy and action, I told him that I had informed Ambassador Gromyko we could take no action before discussing it with the War Department. Secretary Stimson said that he would send a memorandum to the President expressing his views. On January 17th I signed a wire to Ambassador Harriman authorizing him to let Marshal Voroshilov sign the Hungarian Armistice on behalf of the United States.11 11 740.00119EW/1-1745 not printed. : : : We informed Ambassador Murphy that we felt the Italian policy had been mild even for Italy and that a much more rigorous purge program should be applied to Germany. A general "post- defeat" directive for Germany was approved by the State, War and Navy Departments, although the financial sections had not been agreed to by the Treasury Department; therefore Mr. Winant had been instructed to act without waiting for the latter.12 By the time I 12 See ante, p. - left for the trip, the State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee was drawing up a document to be presented to the four governments involved, proving [providing] for immediate activation in London of the Control Council for Germany. : At my press conference on the nineteenth a correspondent inquired whether the U. S. policy was still the same regarding punishment of Hitler and other Nazi leaders as had been previously stated by Secre- tary Hull and the President. I answered that that was still the policy of the Department. Ambassador Joseph Davies phoned me on the twenty-second to say he had a memorandum on war crimes; I had a visit with him that noon.

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