870.811/206: Telegram
The Chargé in the Soviet Union (Thurston) to the Secretary of State
Moscow, September 13,
1940.
[Received September 18—2:52 p.m.]
[Received September 18—2:52 p.m.]
1157. The Soviet press this morning, in an article entitled “In the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs” publishes the following two announcements: [Page 508]
- 1.
- The first states that in connection with reports of the German Information Bureau and radio which have appeared in the foreign press concerning the convocation in Vienna by the German Government of a conference of experts on international Danubian questions for the purpose of effecting changes in the existing international regime on the Danube, the First Assistant Commissar for Foreign Affairs Vyshinski received the German Ambassador on September 10 and declared to him that “the Soviet Union, being a Danubian state, cannot remain indifferent to the navigation regime on the Danube and must participate in the decision of questions affecting the Danube. In view of the foregoing, the Soviet Government hopes to receive from the German Government appropriate information concerning the conference of experts in Vienna on international Danubian problems.” The announcement concludes that the German Ambassador replied that he would make inquiry of his Government on this question.
- 2.
- The second announcement states that on September 12 the Assistant People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs Dekanosov made a declaration to the Rumanian Minister to the effect that on September 11 at 1 p.m. in the region of the Baloash Mountains, 34 kilometers southeast of Cernovitz, a Soviet frontier detachment was suddenly fired on from the Rumanian territory by rifle and machinegun fire, and that another group of Soviet border guards sent to the spot were likewise fired on from the Rumanian side. The declaration continues that the Soviet frontier units were forced to open fire in reply and that “the Soviet Government notes that up to the present time no reply has been received from the Rumanian Government to the Soviet note of protest of August 29, 1940, in regard to the provocative action of Rumanian frontier and military units and that furthermore, as set forth above on the 11th of September there took place new provocative acts on the part of the Rumanian military units, the impermissibility of which the Soviet Government again calls to the attention of the Government of Rumania. The Rumanian Minister declared that the reply of his Government to the note of protest of August 29 would be handed by him to the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs on the 13th of September11 and in regard to the incident which took place on the 11th of September an investigation would be conducted and those guilty would be punished.
Repeated to Berlin and Bucharest.
Thurston