081.60m/2–1048
The Secretary of State to the Embassy in the Soviet Union
The Secretary of State receives many communications requesting duly authenticated copies of records or documents from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia as well as inquiries regarding the whereabouts of persons whose last known residence was in the Baltic States, in connection with the settlement of estates in the United States. In replying to these letters the Department is pointing out that the Government of the United States has no diplomatic or consular officers in the countries mentioned.
It is now being suggested by the Department to persons desiring public records or documents from the Baltic States that they endeavor to communicate directly or through attorneys with the persons in the particular country who issue or certify to such documents, have such persons or the attorneys forward the documents to the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Moscow with a view to obtaining its seal and signature, and then submit the documents in turn to the American Embassy at Moscow for authentication.
The attention of the Embassy is invited to the fact that its authentication is intended merely to assist in establishing the fact that the local official was acting as such in issuing the certificate and is not to be construed as involving a recognition by this Government of the right of the Soviet Government to exercise sovereign authority in the particular country. In compliance with the foregoing, the Embassy is requested in authenticating in its turn documents which have been certified by the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs arid which bear the seals and signatures of local Lithuanian, Latvian or Estonian officials, to include in each such authentication a statement to the effect that the authentication is not to be interpreted as implying recognition of Soviet sovereignty of the particular country.
With respect to the whereabouts of the alien beneficiaries of estates in the United States, the Department customarily makes no routine whereabouts inquiries regarding aliens in the Baltic States; however, it does consider as a separate category those whereabouts inquiries pertaining to aliens about whom information is desired in order to settle an estate or other legal matter pending in the American courts. In such instances the persons are informed that the American Embassy at Moscow may be able to obtain information regarding the Lithuanian, Latvian or Estonian national by means of an inquiry through postal channels (provided of course that the interested persons are able to supply names and specific addresses of persons likely to have [Page 881] knowledge of the whereabouts of the individual), and the Embassy is requested to take such steps as may be possible to obtain the desired information.