Office of the Historian

860I.01/92

The Secretary of State to the Estonian Acting Consul General at New York in Charge of Legation (Kaiv)

Washington, July 3, 1941.

My Dear Mr. Kaiv: With reference to your telegram of June 26, 1941 and the Department’s telegraphic reply of June 27 [28], 1941,71 there is attached hereto for your use certificate No. 3848 bearing today’s date indicating that the United States Government continues to recognize you as Acting Consul General of Estonia in New York City in charge of Legation.

In further confirmation of the Department’s telegram referred to above, I wish to state that this Government does not recognize the absorption of Estonia by the Soviet Union nor the regime now functioning in Estonia, nor the legality of the so-called nationalization laws or other acts or decrees passed or issued by that regime.72 This Government, [Page 628] moreover, continues to regard the Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Consular Rights between the United States and Estonia signed in Washington on December 23, 192573 as still in force.

Sincerely yours,

For the Secretary of State:
A. A. Berle, Jr.
  1. Neither printed.↩
  2. A similar letter regarding the position of the Latvian Minister in the United States, and non-recognition of the absorption of Latvia by the Soviet Union, was written on August 1, 1941, to Mr. Robert H. Law, Jr., Counselor at Law, White Plains, New York. (860P.01/111)↩
  3. Foreign Relations, 1925, vol. ii, p. 70.↩