857H.01/102

Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Eastern European Affairs ( Kelley )

The French Government has approached the Department on three different occasions during the past ten years with a view to obtaining our agreement to the adherence of the Soviet Government to the Spitsbergen Treaty of February 9, 1920. In 1924, after a long discussion with the French Embassy of a draft of an agreement between the signatory Powers to the Treaty which would authorize the Soviet Government to adhere to the Treaty, the Department eventually informed [Page 279] the French Government that the United States had not recognized the Soviet Government and in these circumstances it could not see its way to consent to the adherence of the Soviet régime to the Treaty.88

In November, 1931, following the adherence of the Soviet Union to the Kellogg Pact,88a the French Ambassador took up the matter again89 and we informed him that the adherence of the Soviet Government to that Pact had not altered the situation with respect to our non-recognition of that Government, but that should other parties to the Spitsbergen Treaty desire to permit the Soviet regime to adhere to this Treaty, the Government of the United States would not raise any objection, provided it was clearly understood that the absence of such an objection should not be construed as constituting recognition of that régime by the United States.

In May, 1932, in response to an inquiry from the French Ambassador whether the United States would be prepared to enter into an agreement to be drawn up by all the signatory Powers to the Spitsbergen Treaty under which the Soviet regime would be permitted to adhere to that Treaty, the Department stated that while still adhering to the position taken in its last note on the subject, it was not in a position to become a party to an agreement such as that proposed by the French Government.90

Inasmuch as our attitude in the past with regard to the adherence of the Soviet Government to the Spitsbergen Treaty has been determined solely by the fact that we had not extended recognition, to the Soviet Government, there would seem to be at the present time no grounds for raising objection to the French Government taking steps to secure the Soviet Government’s adherence to the Treaty of Spitsbergen.

Robert F. Kelley
  1. See ( Foreign Relations, 1924, vol. i, pp. 16, and ( ibid., 1925, vol. i, pp. 201209.
  2. For text of treaty, see ( ibid., 1928, vol. i, p. 153.
  3. See note of November 17, 1931, from the French Ambassador, ( ibid., 1932, vol. i, p. 901.
  4. No record of such a communication has been found in Department files.