Gen. S. asked where and hov; did Gen. A. intend to use the Polish uorps. Gen. A. replied that he intended to use it with the bth Army, on account of its British equipment. Gen. S. said the Polish troops would be glad to fight under Gen. MONTGOMERY. He suggested the possibility of using the Corps in the mountainous part of the front, e8pecially as the 3rd. Carpathian Oivision had been trained for this type of warfare in Suthem Syria. Gen. A. said he was very glad, as he needed these units. The Corps could therefore be used in the central sector, approximately north east of Orvieto. (He hoped by the time the Polish Corps v/as assembled in Italy, the bth. Army would reach the linę Orvieto-Ancona.)
Gen. S. asked Gen.A. to give his opinion on the possibility of main-taining the organisation of 2 divs of 2 bdes in the first phase, and then giving the Corp3 another organisation according to circumstancea.
Gen. A. "The Polish nation car. make the greate3t narne for itself by achieving military successes by your troops. The best way to achieve these successes is to adopt the proper organisation, as&aiflt* xgg^lgxgjcg(ŁijcaaŁlnnygggy!t at once. "
Gen. S. again stressed the bad effect which the reduction of the Polish unit, generally known as Army, virtually to one division, would have on the morale of the troops and on the Polish MLtobgna opinion in Poland and elsewhere. Cadres of an Army had been organ-ised in anticipation of further contingents of Poles coming from Russia. After the diplomatic relations between Poland and Russia had been broker, this source of manpower ceased to exist.
Gen. A. repeated that whatever organisation of the Corps were adopted, he had decided to consider the Polish Corps ąsaCorps, having due regard to the morala: motives put forward "by łha Polish C-in-C.
He then suggested the following solution.
The Poli3h Corps should consist of an Inf Div of three Inf Bdes and an Armd Div, both organised on British W.E. In the event of- suff-icient reinforcements not being available for the Inf Div (if losses exceeded 20 per cent) it might be necessary to take them from the infantry of the Armd Div, or to replace one of the Inf Bdes in,the Inf Div by that from the Armd Div. Owing to the length of time which would be taken to assemble the Polish Corps in Italy, such means of finding reinforceir.ents might never be necessary.
Gen. S. said it was a fourth alternative to those diecussed at A.P.H.Q. He again laid emphasis on bringing the whole of the Polish Corps to Italy. Gen. A. assured that this would be done. -He thought the foregoing was the best 30lution, as it would give 2 i)ivs in the Polish Corps and thus make possible the reorganisation of the Armd Div according to British W.E. Gen. 3. asked -to have all clements of the Armd. Div. brought ov«r to Italy and at first 3tationed behindf tbe front, wbe-re they could complete their oggan-isation. Gen. Richardson said tbe transport of the Corps would begin about December 23 and would take ir.cre or less 3 months.
Gen. A. promised to do everything possible in order to have the whole of the Corps brought over in the shortest possible time-. The delay in assembling it in Italy would be due entirely to the limit-ations of transport from tbe MIDDLE EAST to ITAIY. He also said that having fuli regard to the Polish national and morał motives, he.wculd give the Polish Corps an independent ąector of the line>