741.6111/39
The Latvian Minister (Bilmanis) to the Secretary of State 89
Sir: The recently published Russian-British Agreement signed on May 26, 194290 contains in Article 5 a freely assumed obligation by the Soviet Union not to seek territorial aggrandizement and to abstain from interference in the internal affairs of other states.
While I sincerely welcome these principles, already proclaimed in the historic Atlantic Charter,91 as the most important maxims in the relations between independent states, I am deeply concerned about the sincerity of Soviet Russia to abide by these principles in regard to the Republic of Latvia.
Contrary to expectations, natural and inevitable after Soviet Russia’s acceptance of the principles of non-aggrandizement and non-interference, the Government of the Soviet Union has not publicly renounced its aggressive and totally unjustifiable claim to aggrandize the Soviet Union at the expense of the Republic of Latvia and in complete disregard of international law and treaty obligations and contrary to the desires, rights and most vital interests of the Latvian nation.
To my great astonishment and distress, the Soviet Premier, Mr. Molotoff has delivered after his return to Russia, according to Associated Press releases, a note against Nazi German ferocities perpetrated against Soviet citizens in Nazi occupied territories, and in this note the Soviet Union continues to consider the Latvian nation as a part of the Soviet Union.
This position of the Soviet Union is not only a violation of the high and noble principles of the Atlantic Charter, but it also represents a breach of Russia’s voluntarily assumed and publicly proclaimed treaty obligations.92
I have the honor, Sir, in the name of the Latvian Government and in the name of the Latvian Nation, at present enslaved and silenced by the brutal Nazi invaders, to protest against the apparently hostile [Page 445] and aggressive purposes of the Soviet Union against the Republic of Latvia.
In filing this protest regarding the intent and design of Soviet Russia against the Republic of Latvia, I beg you to accept, Sir, my assurances that the Latvian Government is ready to resume relations with her neighbor, the Soviet Union on the basis of international law and respective mutual treaties concluded prior to the German-Russian treaty of August 23, 1939.93
Finally, Sir, I beg you to accept the profound gratitude which I have the honor on behalf of the Republic of Latvia to express to the Government of the United States of America for the magnanimous and righteous support extended by the United States to the Government and the people of Latvia in the hour of their gravest distress.
Accept [etc.]
- When presenting this note to the Assistant Chief of the Division of European Affairs (Henderson) on June 16, 1942, Dr. Bilmanis expressed his “appreciation for the attitude which the Government of the United States has so consistently taken with regard to the Baltic States.”↩
- Treaty of Alliance in the War against Hitlerite Germany and Her Associates in Europe, and Collaboration and Mutual Assistance Thereafter, signed at London on May 26, 1942; for text, see League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. cciv, p. 353, or Department of State Bulletin, September 26, 1942, p. 781.↩
- Joint statement issued on August 14, 1941, by President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill, Foreign Relations, 1941, vol. i, p. 367.↩
- For correspondence regarding the treaties involved and broken when the Soviet Union compelled the Baltic States to conclude pacts of mutual assistance in 1939, see Foreign Relations, The Soviet Union, 1933–1939, pp. 934 ff. The Soviet Union proceeded the following year to forcible occupation and incorporation of these States; see ibid., 1940, vol. i, pp. 357 ff.↩
- Nonaggression treaty signed at Moscow on August 23, 1939; for text, see Department of State, Nazi-Soviet Relations, 1939–1941, pp. 76–78, or Documents on German Foreign Policy, 1918–1945, Series D, vol. vii, pp. 245–247.↩