840.51 Frozen Credits/515: Telegram
The Chargé in the Soviet Union (Thurston) to the Secretary of State
[Received 10:50 p.m.]
1075. Lozovski read and handed to me today the following memorandum dated August 26, 1940 from the Soviet Government in reply to the memorandum which I delivered on August 12, 1940 in accordance with the Department’s telegram 423, August 9, 6 p.m.:
Translation. Having studied the memorandum of the Government of the United States of America dated August 12, 1940 on the question of the retention by American institutions of the gold purchased by the State Bank of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics from the Central Banks of Esthonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, the Soviet Government considers that the statement contained in the Soviet memorandum of July 20, 1940 in regard to the responsibility of the Government of the United States of America for the damages suffered by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as a result of the action of American institutions is fully confirmed.
The attempts of the Government of the United States to explain its measures directed against the legal rights and interests of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics by assertions that the Governments and peoples of the Baltic countries were allegedly deprived of the possibility of disposing legally of the property belonging to them are in full contradiction to the facts and are thus without basis and cannot, therefore, serve as a justification for the above-mentioned actions of the American authorities.
The references in the memorandum of the Government of the United States to orders of the executive authorities of the United States to the right of control, etc., cannot serve as a basis for violation of the property rights and interests of the Soviet State. Insofar as the Executive orders of April 10, May 10, June 17, 1940 referred to in the memorandum of the Government of the United States, are concerned [Page 431] the orders in question have no relation whatsoever to the present case and the reference thereto only reveals the unwillingness of the appropriate institutions and of the Government of the United States to carry out measures which are entirely within their competency in order to guarantee the due execution of the orders of the Banks of Esthonia, Latvia and Lithuanian and of the State bank of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics which are based on their legal rights. In view of the foregoing the Soviet Government unreservedly insists on its application of July 20, 1940 for the return to the Soviet Union of the gold purchased by it from the Central Banks of Esthonia, Latvia and Lithuania.30
- In an attached memorandum for the Acting Chief of the Division of European Affairs, Ray Atherton, the Assistant Chief of the Division, Loy W. Henderson, inquired: “Do you not agree with me that no purpose would be served in replying to this memorandum? We have stated our case; the Soviet Government has given its views. There seems to be no bridge between us at the present time with regard to this matter.” Mr. Atherton noted: “O.K. R. A.”↩