760i.61/111: Telegram
The Chargé in Estonia ( Leonard ) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 19—10:34 a.m.]
13. I have inquired from the Minister of Foreign Affairs83 concerning rumored assistance to Estonia offered by Soviet Government and was confidentially furnished with copies of a communication to the Estonian Minister at Moscow dated March 28th indicating that Russia could not remain passive if the independence of Estonia were restricted either freely or through outside pressure, to which on April 7th Estonian Government replied it could never consent to any restriction of its sovereignty but that to it alone belonged the right to judge when its rights were infringed, and that it could not share with any other state the right and duty to care for its neutrality and its independence.84 Despatch follows85 in the pouch enclosing above-mentioned copies of communications.
- Karl Selter.↩
- The American Chargé in Moscow, in commenting upon this Soviet démarche in his despatch No. 2285, April 26, 1939, stated that since there had been no positive result “its chief importance lies in the fact that it reveals the strategic importance which the Soviet Union attaches to the Baltic States bordering on its frontiers”, and that as far as was known no similar approach had been made to Lithuania. (740.00/1517)↩
- Despatch No. 84, April 25, not printed.↩