Diplomatic stance of neutral nations to 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop occupations

[GregSingh]

When you look here: Relations of Poland with the Holy See, you will find:

On October 19, 1972, the Holy See finally withdrew its recognition for the Polish government in exile. Thus, the mission of Kazimierz Papée ended, although the President of the Republic of Poland Stanisław Ostrowski dismissed him from the function of ambassador only on May 24, 1976.

Where did 1958 come from?

[Ironmachine]

When you look here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_go ... t-in-exile, you will find:

The Republic of Ireland, Francoist Spain and the Vatican City (until 1979 [sic]) were the last countries to recognize the government in exile, though the Vatican – through Secretary of State Domenico Tardini – had withdrawn diplomatic privileges from the envoy of the Polish pre-war government in 1959.[32]

Reference 32 is a 19 January 1959 article in Time magazine (that can be accessed here if you have an account:http://content.time.com/time/magazine/a ... 88,00.html) and begins as follows:

For "technical" reasons, said the Vatican's Osservatore Romano last week, the Holy See has withdrawn diplomatic privileges from the envoys of the Polish and Lithuanian pre-war governments. Henceforth, the dean of the Vatican diplomatic corps, Casimir Papee, Ambassador from the Polish government in exile, and Stanislaus Girdvainis. minister from Lithuania before Russia annexed that country in 1940, will probably serve as chargés d'affaires. But no matter how technical the reasons, insiders in Rome buzzed with speculation that the move signaled a new phase of diplomatic relations between Vatican and Kremlin.

So it seems the 1958 dates comes from a misunderstanding of the real meaning and scope of the measures taken by the Vatican in that year.

[GregSingh]

OK, thanks!

[Sid Guttridge]

One has to wonder if the death of the very anti-Communist Pius XII and the election of the more liberal John XXIII in 1958 hadn't something to do with the down grading of Vatican City State-Polish exile relations.

The Polish exiles hadn't helped themselves much by becoming increasingly split during the 1950s.

The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs site stoday ays:

"Holy See Archive
Bilateral cooperation
Poland established diplomatic relations with the Holy See in 1919. The Vatican did not recognise the Provisional Government of National Unity, formed in Warsaw on 28 June 1945, and until 1958 it maintained diplomatic relations with the Polish Government-in-Exile in London. In spring 1971, talks on normalisation of relations between the PPR and the Holy See began."

Cheers,

Sid.