760m.6111/54
The Minister in Lithuania (Norem) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 25.]
Sir: I have the honor to report that on Thursday morning, October 26, 1939, I called upon the Lithuanian Prime Minister63 to determine the exact status of the Vilna question and to obtain information, if possible, of the present negotiations with the Russian Commission. On Friday, October 27, I called upon Vice Prime Minister, Mr. Kazys Bizauskas.
The Prime Minister was apparently very anxious to give information on all questions and began by outlining the work of the Lithuanian negotiations with the Russians in connection with the Vilna Territory.64 He stated that the delay of occupation was due to the aggravating Russian habit of procrastinating on smaller matters rather than due to any time element needed to thoroughly exploit the territory as many thought. That the partial despoiling of the territory has been effected cannot be denied and presumably we shall find a territory [Page 977] in sore need. (I have been invited by the Lithuanian authorities to make a surveying trip on Sunday, October 29, together with the Lithuanian Red Cross and have accepted. We leave at 5 a.m. and plan to spend the day in Vilna.)
The placing of Russian forces within the Lithuanian boundaries is certainly not too agreeable to the Lithuanians and they refer with a sorry smile to the peculiar situation of soon having two foreign armies, Russian and Polish, as their guests. When the Russians suggested that a garrison be placed at Kaunas, the Lithuanians objected. However, it was agreed that for the time being Russian troops shall be stationed near Vilnius. The other places have not been agreed upon and General Jonas Cernius, the Prime Minister, told me that the Lithuanian hope was to reduce the number of garrison places. He added that throughout the negotiations, the Russian Commission has been most congenial and apparently has very little interest where the troops are to be placed. They arrived without instructions or preconceived notions about desirable places. For this reason, the Lithuanians have been able to feel that the negotiations are being well conducted in every way excepting the time element.
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On Friday I interviewed the Vice Prime Minister, Mr. Bizauskas, who told me that agreement had been reached on the various matters holding up the movement of troops and that for the next few days, the Lithuanian forces would follow the Russian units very closely. Not a great deal of territory will separate the two forces. The alleged Latvian effort to dump undesirable Polish refugees upon the Lithuanians will be thwarted by careful sealing, post by post, of the portion bordering upon Latvia. The Lithuanian troops began their march at 7 a.m. today, October 27.
Mr. Bizauskas told me that the new Governor of the Territory would most likely be Mr. Antanas Merkys, the present Mayor of Kaunas, who will be granted a leave of absence for the temporary post.
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In speaking of the German influence in Lithuania, Mr. Bizauskas stated that the organizations such as the Kulturverband would of course be very active with their lists and would urge all Germans to leave. The Lithuanian government will not attempt to deter them except to make certain restrictions of amounts of property, etc. that can be legally taken out of the country. He thought the Germans would soon begin their big offensive on the western front and possibly march through Belgium and Holland. He added another note that has caused me a great deal of speculation: “perhaps they will await cold weather so that they can march across Holland”.
[Page 978]Mr. Bizauskas related one account that had come into his office from the Vilna Territory which told of how the women had slept in the factories to keep their machinery from being looted by the Russian soldiers.
Respectfully yours,
- Brig. Gen. Jonas Cernius.↩
- A supplementary protocol between Lithuania and the Soviet Union was signed in Moscow on October 27, 1939, for carrying out article 1 of the mutual assistance pact of October 10, 1939, and replacing article 2 of the treaty of peace of July 12, 1920. This protocol contained a detailed description of the new boundary between Lithuania and the Soviet Union.↩