760m.61/83
Memorandum by the Assistant Chief of the Division of European Affairs (Henderson)
The Lithuanian Minister21 called upon me today in order, as he said, to discuss the Vilna problem. He said that there had been certain developments which caused his Government to believe that there is a possibility that the Soviet Government may offer to return to Lithuania the Vilna territory. He said that he would like informally [Page 947] to know whether the acceptance by his Government of the Vilna territory from the Soviet Union would be likely to lessen the feelings of friendliness which the American Government had always shown toward the Government of Lithuania. He said that he would appreciate anything in this connection which I might tell him.
He said that in making this inquiry he desired to stress a number of factors:
- (1)
- The Government of Lithuania has always maintained that Vilna is a part of Lithuania and has at no time given the Polish Government or any other Government cause to believe that it acquiesced in the Polish seizure of Vilna.22
- (2)
- The taking over of Vilna by Lithuania would not violate any treaty to which Lithuania is a party.
- (3)
- If Lithuania should refuse the Soviet offer of Vilna, Lithuania would probably not only lose Vilna in perpetuity, but the Vilna territory, in which there are many Lithuanians, would remain under the control of the Bolsheviks. The Lithuanian Government feels that it has certain obligations toward these Lithuanian nationals, most of whom have continued to remain loyal to Lithuania.
- (4)
- The Polish Government should prefer that Lithuania, which, after all, has a Western civilization, rather than the Soviet Union, should dominate the Poles in Vilna.
I told the Minister that I was not in a position to state what the position of the American Government would be since so far as I knew the question had not been discussed by the officials of the American Government. I stated that in my opinion the American Government would refrain from issuing any statement, even informally, regarding the attitude which it would take toward Lithuania if that country should take over Vilna.23 I pointed out, however, that the American Government continued to recognize the Polish Government and to recognize all of the territory which belonged to Poland as of August 31, 1939 as Polish territory. I said that I was convinced that the American Government would not recognize de jure Vilna as being a part of Lithuania under present conditions.
The Minister asked me if I would be good enough to present the matter to the appropriate officials of the Department and to arrange for him to see in the next day or two some member of the Department who would be in a position to give him an idea regarding the manner in which the American Government would view such a shift in territory.
[Page 948]I replied that I would be glad to make a memorandum of our conversation and to endeavor to make an appointment for him with one of the higher officials of the Department,24 but that I felt quite sure that no official could make a statement of the nature which he desired.
The Minister stated that he was making this inquiry voluntarily, and not at the request of his Government.
- Povilas Zadeikis.↩
- Seized in a military coup d’état on October 9, 1920, by the independent Polish General Zeligowski.↩
- Notation on the memorandum by Pierrepont Moffat, Chief of the Division of European Affairs: “I recommend that Mr. Zadeikis be told that the American Gov[ernmen]t could not give any advice nor express any views (even in-formally) on the question presented.”↩
- Assistant Secretary Adolf A. Berle, Jr., told the Lithuanian Minister on October 4, 1939, that while there was “our general doctrine of non-recognition of conquests by force” nonetheless “we fully realized the peculiar circumstances attending the present situation in which the Vilna district found itself.” The United States “had continuously had the greatest friendship for the Baltic Republics.” (760c.60m/474)↩