Office of the Historian

740.0011 European War 1939/4237: Telegram

The Minister in Rumania (Gunther) to the Secretary of State

Bucharest, June 27, 1940—1 p.m.
[Received June 28—9:25 a.m.]

302. The Bolshevik Government presented at 10 o’clock last night a 24-hour ultimatum to the Rumanian Government demanding the immediate return of Bessarabia and that part of Bukowina inhabited by Ukrainians as indicated on a map yet to reach Bucharest. The preamble of the ultimatum refers to Bessarabia having been taken at a time when Russia was militarily weak “an unfortunate state of [Page 480] affairs which now no longer exists.”38 In my personal opinion this ultimatum will be rejected.

Repeated to Moscow.

Gunther
  1. The Rumanian invasion of Bessarabia began in January 1918, and with the disintegration of Russia after the Bolshevik revolution the province became effectively Rumanian. A treaty signed at Paris on October 28, 1920, between Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan, and Rumania, formally assenting to the acquisition of Bessarabia by Rumania, was never ratified by Japan and was not actually in force; for draft and correspondence regarding the treaty, see Foreign Relations, 1920, vol. iii pp. 426–435; for text, see British and Foreign State Papers, vol. cxiii, p. 647. The United States was not party to this treaty and for a long time refused to recognize Rumanian sovereignty over Bessarabia, until de facto recognition was granted in 1933; see Foreign Relations, 1930, vol. iii, pp. 801–807; ibid., 1932, vol. ii, pp. 503–508; and ibid., 1933, vol. ii, pp. 656–682.↩