800.51W89 Latvia/115
The Latvian Minister for Foreign Affairs (Zarins) to the American Minister in Latvia (Skinner)17
Excellency: I have the honour to refer to my Note of the 13th of September last, to the Note which was handed over to the American Secretary of State on the 23rd of November and, lastly to the Aide-Mémoire I transmitted to you on December 3rd, concerning the payment of the next instalment due to the United States in virtue of the debt funding agreement concluded on September 24th, 1925.
I have the honour to inform Your Excellency that, taking into
consideration the refusal of the United States Government to grant a
postponement of the payment falling due to-day, which refusal was
communicated to Mr. Lule,
Latvian Consul-General in New York and in charge of the Latvian
Legation in the United States, on the 10th of December by the
Assistant Secretary of State and by Mr. Mills, Secretary of the Treasury, the Latvian
Government have decided to pay the United States Treasury the sum
of
$111.852,12
which sum was mentioned as not to be
postponed in the Note of the American Chargé d’Affaires in Riga of
September 24th. The
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Minister of Finance has to-day advised the Federal Reserve Bank in
New York by telegraph to effect the above payment.
In the name of the Latvian Government I have to declare in this connection that this payment has been made out of the inalienable reserves of the State, and only in view of the categorical demand of the United States Government,
Notwithstanding this, Latvia maintains the point of view expressed in the Notes of September 13th and November 23rd, and the Aide-Mémoire of December 3rd, and requests that the revision of the debt funding agreement of September 24th, 1925, be accomplished in any case before the next instalment falls due, i.e. before June 15th, 1933.
The payment in question has further been made out of the conviction of the Latvian Government that it will facilitate considerably a satisfactory approach to the settlement and the final liquidation of the whole question of war and intergovernmental debts.
Finally, I have the honour to state that this payment is not regarded by the Latvian Government as a resumption of the annual payments contemplated by the agreement of 1925. It is made, because there has not been sufficient time to discuss and explain to the United States Government and Congress the financial and economic situation of Latvia.
I avail myself [etc.]
- Transmitted to the Department by the Minister in Latvia as enclosure to his despatch No. 998 of December 19; received January 4, 1933.↩