500.CC/4–645
The Acting Consul General of Estonia in Charge of Legation (Kaiv) to the Secretary of State 24
[Received April 7.]
Sir: According to the Bulletin of the Department of State, dated March 11, 1945, a conference of the United Nations is called to meet at San Francisco on April 25, 1945, the purpose of which is to prepare a charter for a general international organization for the maintenance of international peace and security and which, in conformity with the statement made at the Crimea Conference, is essential, both to prevent aggression and to remove the political, economic and social causes of war through the close and continuing collaboration of all peace-loving peoples.
[Page 204]Estonia, being a peace-loving country, and having severely suffered under acts of aggression, is vitally interested in the San Francisco Conference and its achievements.
Although the primary purpose of the said Conference is to prepare a charter for a general international organization, it must be presumed that in discussing the structure of such an organization the Conference has to deal directly or indirectly with the existing countries, among them Estonia.
Estonia is at present occupied by the armed forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.26 Regardless of the fact that such an occupation must be considered as a temporary and military occupation only, the Government of the U.S.S.R. considers Estonia as part of the Soviet Union, designating it as the 16–th constituent Republic of the Soviet Union. The U.S.S.R. is trying to justify its position by asserting that the Estonian people have joined Russia by a plebiscite in 1940. No such a plebiscite has ever taken place in Estonia. There are no legal acts or facts by which the U.S.S.R. would have gained sovereignty over the Estonian people. Nevertheless, the U.S.S.R. continues to violate the rights of the Estonian people not only in my homeland, but also is claiming the right to represent Estonia in international relations.
I have the honor to bring through you, Sir, to the attention of the Government of the United States of America, as sponsor of the San Francisco Conference, that in appearing at the San Francisco Conference, the delegation of the U.S.S.R. cannot in any way represent Estonia. Such a right belongs only to the legal representatives of the Estonian Constitutional Government.
Accept [etc.]
- In a note of May 2 the Acting Secretary of State acknowledged receipt of the Estonian note (500.CC/4–645).↩
- See Foreign Relations, 1940, vol. i, pp. 369 ff.↩