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Documents on Canadian External Relations
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Volume #18 - 982. | |||||
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CHAPTER X RELATIONS WITH THE SOVIET UNION AND EASTERN EUROPE | |||||
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PART
2 RELATIONS WITH EASTERN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES | |||||
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SECTION
B POLAND | |||||
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SUB-SECTION
I ART TREASURES | |||||
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982. |
DEA/837-40 | ||||
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Memorandum from European Division to Under-Secretary of State for External Affairs | |||||
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CONFIDENTIAL |
Ottawa,
January 8th, 1952 | ||||
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POLISH ART TREASURES | |||||
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The treasures remain divided in three lots and held as they have been for some time past. One lot is in the vaults of the Bank of Montreal in Ottawa, a second lot is held in church buildings in Killaloe, Ontario, and a third lot is in the care of Mr. Duplessis. 2. There have been no new developments in the problem and the deadlock goes on. The Poles show no inclination to take the matter to our courts and I believe we are still reluctant to risk unpleasantness with Mr. Duplessis, or to urge the Bank to obtain a court order confirming the title of the present Polish State to the treasures, or to ask the R.C.M.P. to break into the church premises in Killaloe, although the situation continues to be an embarrassment to the Government and to provide Poland with a useful weapon for anti-Canadian propaganda. (It must also be recognized that if Poland retrieved the treasures now the result would probably be a great, and fairly successful, internal propaganda effort to link the present regime with Poland's heroic past and put Bierut in the direct line of descent from Casimir the Great, à la Stalin and Peter the Great.) 3. I am bringing this matter to your attention now for the first time since last April in case you feel that some action should now be taken.10 I was myself reminded of the problem on December 29th when the Polish Chargé d'Affaires, Mr. Markowski, came to see Mr. Campbell11 and me in connection with the Polish archives from Tokyo. In the course of our conversation, he mentioned that he had had no reply to a Note submitted a year ago on the subject of the art treasures. This Note, dated December 19th, 1950, revealed that the Poles had found out about the cache at Killaloe, referred to previous Notes on the subject and asked that the objects at Killaloe be turned over to the Polish Legation. As we have nothing new to say to the Poles on this subject, there would seem to be no point in replying to their Note now, especially as they have sent no reminders. J.B.C. W[ATKINS]
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