Foreign Relations of the United States, The Soviet Union, 1933–1939

760p.61/109: Telegram

The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt) to the Secretary of State

Moscow, October 3, 1939—3 p.m.
[Received October 3—12:48 p.m.²⁵]

666. The press announces the arrival yesterday of the Latvian Minister for Foreign Affairs who in the evening had a 2–hour conversation with Molotov at which Stalin, Potemkin, the Soviet Minister to Latvia and the Latvian Minister to Moscow were present. A Tass dispatch from Riga dated October 2nd cites the Latvian telegraphic agency to the effect that following the Soviet-Estonian and Soviet-German treaties the Latvian Government had decided to send Munters to Moscow to establish direct contact with the Soviet Government in view of the changed situation produced by the above-mentioned agreements.

The Moscow press reports in a despatch from Kaunas the impending departure on October 3 of the Lithuanian Foreign Minister for Moscow for the purpose of discussing questions of interest to Lithuania and the Soviet Union.

It is expected that Munters will sign a treaty of mutual assistance with the Soviet Union along the lines of the Soviet-Estonian pact with variations due to the different geographical location of Latvia. It is possible that the treaty will give the Soviet Union the right to move troops through the territory of Latvia in the event of any attack on Estonia; port facilities and possibly a naval base in Libau as well as increased transit facilities for Soviet goods through Latvia. It is expected that the treaty will contain guarantees similar to those contained in the Estonian treaty in regard to the maintenance of the Latvian state structure and non-interference in its internal affairs.

The terms of the Estonian Soviet treaty are less far-reaching than might have been expected under the circumstances and are believed to have been the result of a compromise between the Soviet Union and Germany. According to my information the guarantee of Estonian independence and the commitment to refrain from interference in the internal affairs of that country was at the request of Germany which, while interposing no objection to the establishment of Soviet bases in view of the special interests of the Soviet Union in the Baltic, because of the existence of German minorities in those countries [did not wish?] to see the Soviet Union absorb or impose its system on Estonia or Latvia. It is said in this connection that the German Minister in Latvia had informed the German Baits in that country that they had nothing to fear from the forthcoming treaty between Latvia and the Soviet Republic.

It is not yet certain what type of agreement the Lithuanian Foreign Minister will be forced to conclude during his visit here but it is doubted in view of the geographical location of Lithuania that it will be a mutual assistance pact similar to that concluded with Estonia and expected with Latvia. It is more likely that the agreement will provide for transit facilities through Lithuania in exchange for certain frontier readjustments in the vicinity of Vilna.

Repeated to Riga.

Steinhardt

25. Telegram in two sections.