Office of the Historian

760i.62/40: Telegram

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

Tallinn, October 9, 1939—5 p.m.
[Received October 9—1:20 p.m.]

94. Supplementing my telegram No. 92 of today,45 the following is strictly confidential: In making inquiry concerning Germany’s reasons for evacuating its minority from Estonia,46 Foreign Minister Selter has made the following observation: first that Germany desired to have them evacuated before the Soviet troops are garrisoned in Estonia to avoid possible incidents, and secondly Germany appears to believe that a war with the Soviets may become inevitable, in which case it wishes to avoid the fate which would befall them if left in Estonia.

Leonard
  1. Not printed.↩
  2. Plans for the evacuation of the German minorities in the three Baltic States were revealed in Hitler’s Reichstag speech of October 6, 1939. Permission for the evacuation was requested on the next day from the Baltic Foreign Ministries.↩