860M.01 Memel/600
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Chief of the Division of European Affairs (Moffat)
The Lithuanian Minister came to see me this morning. He said that when he had come, under instructions from his Government, to announce the cession of the Memel Territory, I had asked him certain questions as to constitutional procedure, which he had perhaps not answered very clearly.
For the sake of the record, therefore, he wanted to explain the constitutional factors involved:
Article 2 of the Constitution of Lithuania, which was promulgated on February 12, 1938, reads:
“The territory of the Lithuanian State is that which is defined by the International Treaties, signed by the Lithuanian State,73 up to the present time. The territory cannot be alienated.”
No alienation of territory was therefore constitutional, but a nation which is faced by a threat of extinction has to follow, even above the letter of the Constitution, the task of self-preservation. This was what impelled the Government to cede the Memel Territory.
After the cession, Lithuania signed a treaty with Germany regarding Memel.
This treaty was signed by virtue of Article 141 of the Constitution, which reads:
“The president of the Republic makes decisions regarding mobilization, war and peace, upon the recommendation of the Council of Ministers. When the Seimas (Parliament) is in session, the consent of the Seimas is mandatory concerning peace decisions.”
The theory on which the Lithuanian Government was acting was that the treaty in effect made peace following a war which was not fought.
I thanked the Minister for his explanations, which, I said, would be made a matter of record. The Minister then reiterated that he was speaking without instructions.
He then referred to Mr. Welles’ press conference74 and the various newspaper accounts thereof. I explained that Mr. Welles’ position could be summarized in the following sentence: “The attitude of the United States Government toward cessions of territory brought about by force or threat of force is well known; inasmuch, however, as the [Page 104] Lithuanian Minister had informed the United States Government of the cession of Memel, the latter was constrained to accept it as a fact.”
- Peace treaty between Lithuania and the Russian Socialist Federal Republic, signed July 12, 1920, League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. iii, p. 105; Memel Convention, signed May 8, 1924, League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. xxix, p. 86.↩
- March 23, 1939.↩