On 18 March, Com. Stalin, in my presence, received General Anders, who had requested an audience in connection with the decision that as of 21 March the Polish Army in the USSR, numbering about 70,000, would receive food rations for only 40,000.

Anders claims the rations had been reduced to 26,000, but according to General Panfilov's report of a conversation with Anders in Moscow on 16 March 1942, Anders said the Polish Army was receiving rations for 30,000, a figure also given in Stalin's telegram to Anders as cited in Anders's memoirs; see Armia Polska, no. 6; KDZ3/231. The text of Stalin's telegram has not been found.

Com. Stalin stated that during the September conference in Moscow, the United States and England undertook the obligation to supply the USSR with 200,000 tons of wheat per month. However, up to the present, only 60,000 tons have been supplied.

At the Moscow conference on aid for the USSR at the end of September 1941, W. Averell Harriman had agreed for the United States and Lord Beaver-brook for Britain that the Soviet Union would receive specified armaments. Furthermore, it was to receive 200,000 tons of wheat and 20,000 tons of sugar per month, to be sent through Arkhangelsk, Vladivostok, and the Persian Gulf; see Foreign Relations of the United States, 1941, vol. 1 (Washington, D.C., 1958), pp. 841-846.

The cause of this non-implementation of the supply plan is the outbreak of war in the Pacific Ocean.

There were earlier shortages in shipping, and the outbreak of war in the Pacific severely disrupted supplies for the USSR. Food rations for the Poles, however, had been cut back before Japan entered the war by attacking Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941; see the Stalin-Panfilov exchange of 3 December in doc. 97 and note 226.

The resulting, unforeseen food deficit forces us, in view of the need to supply combatant troops at the expense of the noncombatants, not only to reduce the number of food rations for the Polish Army but also to limit the formation of some new units for the Red Army.

In the course of the conversation, Com. Stalin agreed to [the following]: 1. Food rations will be supplied for up to the existing number [of men] to the end of March, and from April, rations for 44,000 will be supplied.

Panfilov confirmed Stalin's decision and discussed the evacuation with Anders on 19 March 1942; see SSSR i Polsha, chap. I, no. 37.

2. [Of] the Polish Army, over 44,000 will be transferred to Iran, as proposed by Anders. 3. Of the three Polish divisions formed in the USSR, the USSR will arm two and the English one. 4. If the Polish Army, after forming and arming in Iran, is sent to the Soviet-German front, the USSR will ensure its food supplies.

Com. Stalin emphasized that we are not pressing the Poles to go to the front. The Poles can also come in when the Red Army reaches the frontiers of Poland.

Anders informed [us] that he is flying to London in the first days of April.

I communicate [this to you] for your information.