Office of the Historian

840.51 Frozen Credits/336: Telegram

The Chargé in Estonia (Leonard) to the Secretary of State

Tallinn, July 21, 1940—10 a.m.
[Received July 21—9:50 a.m.]

96. Last midnight I called at the Estonian Foreign Office at the request of the Minister for Foreign Affairs Andresen when he informed me orally that his Government had been greatly embarrassed by the order of the President of the United States on July 15 freezing the gold deposits held by Estonia in the United States, which gold holdings had been purchased from the Estonian Central bank by the Gosbank89 of the Soviet Union, and in forbidding transactions without appropriate license in which the Republic of Estonia and its citizens were interested. The Foreign Minister then stated that his Government had decided to make a categorical protest against this Executive order, indicated as number 8485 [8484] of July 15 last, and he asked me to convey this protest as soon as possible to my Government, and it was added that the Government of Estonia placed the entire responsibility for losses thereby incurred to the interests of Estonia upon the Government of the United States and that the Estonian Government was convinced that the United States Government would immediately take steps to cancel or modify the order so that the transfer of the gold to the Gosbank would be ensured and the interests of Estonia in that respect are admissible.

After conveying the above orally to me the Foreign Minister handed me a note written in the Estonian language, a translation [Page 399] of which confirms the above and also states that in making the categorical protests against “an unlawful arrangement” it points out that this “arrangement” restricts the rights and assets of the sovereign state of Estonia. Further, that in placing its assets in American banks, the Government of Estonia did so in full confidence in American credit institutions and that Estonia considers that execution of the order of July 15 aforementioned grossly violates Estonian rights and interests and causes great loss to its central bank.

Leonard
  1. State Bank.↩