860F.01/12–148: Airgram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Embassy in Peru 1
A–436. The Department has received information, in connection with the efforts of various Slovaks to establish a “Government in Exile”, that Slovaks have been negotiating with the Governments of the Dominican Republic and Peru with a view to the possible recognition by those Governments of a “Slovak Government in Exile”.
Please take advantage of the first appropriate opportunity you may have to ascertain whether Slovaks actually have been negotiating with the Government of Peru and, if this is true, endeavor to persuade, informally and orally, the Peruvian Minister of Foreign Affairs that it would be inadvisable to give any serious consideration to the recognition of a “Slovak Government in Exile”. This Government has given no encouragement to any Slovak groups in the United States advocating the establishment of a “Slovak Government in Exile” because: (1) There is no historic basis for the existence of such a state, except the Nazi-created state which existed from 1939 to 1945 and which did not appear to possess the economic and political bases of an independent state; (2) certain of the Slovaks who now desire to establish a “Slovak Government in Exile” are included in the United Nation’s list of war criminals and they are, moreover, known to be extreme rightists; (3) even the Slovak political exiles and refugees from the present Communist-dominated Czechoslovakian State do not desire the establishment of a separate “Slovak Government in Exile” but consider that their efforts to promote eventual restoration of a free government of Czechoslovakia would be embarrassed and confused by any support given to a “Slovak Government in Exile”; (4) this Government continues to have diplomatic relations with the present Czechoslovakian Government so that it would be patently inconsistent for the United States Government to give any encouragement to a “government in exile” which would claim sovereignty over a part of the same territory; and (5) it has been the view of this Government, in general, that the instrumentality of “governments in exile” would probably not be advisable in the present circumstances in Eastern and Central Europe, toward promoting the eventual restoration of freedom in that area.
- An identical airgram was sent to the Embassy in the Dominican Republic on November 17, 1948. The Peruvian Foreign Ministry informed the Embassy that the Peruvian Government would not consider entering into relations either with the current Czechoslovak Government or with a Slovak Government in exile. The Embassy in Ciudad Trujillo reported that the Dominican Government had not been approached by any Slovak group.↩