660i.6131/46: Telegram

The Chargé in Estonia (Leonard) to the Secretary of State

81. I have been informed by Mr. Meri who negotiated the Estonian Soviet trade treaty in Moscow that the text of the treaty will not be published but the chief points are as follows: It provides for a balanced [Page 953] trade approximating $10,000,000 per annum, namely, four and one-half times larger than last year. Exports from Russia into Estonia will be chiefly raw and semi-manufactured products and will include mineral oil products, iron and steel, chemical fertilizers, salt, sugar and raw cotton, no increases in finished products being contemplated, while exports from Estonia will be chiefly agricultural products.

Transit facilities are granted to Estonia to White Sea as anticipated in telegram No. 52, September 23,29 and also to Black Sea ports while the Soviet Union is granted transit privileges to Estonian ports.

I am informed that the working out of the trade treaty will depend largely upon how the “mutual assistance pact” will develop.

Leonard
  1. Not printed; but see telegram No. 599, September 23, 1939, from the Ambassador in the Soviet Union, p. 939.