711.60 m 12Anti-War/1: Telegram
The Minister in Switzerland (Wilson) to the Secretary of State
[Received 3:18 p.m.]
88. My Lithuanian colleague called this morning to present to me a note from Premier Voldemaras to the Secretary of State by which Lithuania adheres to the Kellogg Pact. The Lithuanian Minister explained that since the Premier was now in Geneva he requested me to transmit this message rather than sending it through Mr. Coleman in order to have it reach Washington at the earliest possible moment. He added that under their form of government a decision by the Cabinet is sufficient for adherence and it is not necessary that Parliament ratify it, Mr. Voldemaras will hand the document to the press on the morning of Saturday the 8th instant. Original text in French, translation follows:
“Kovno, September 5, 1928.
Mr. Secretary of State: Your Excellency’s proposal, dated August 27th last, to adhere to the Pact for the Renunciation of War as an instrument of national policy has been submitted to a thorough examination by the Lithuanian Government.
I am happy to be able to communicate to Your Excellency that on the 28th of August the Government of the Republic instructed me to notify the Government of the United States of its complete approval and adherence to the said Pact. The Lithuanian Government does this with the more readiness in that Lithuania from the moment of the rebirth of its independent existence in 1918 instituted a policy of peace.
Thus the Lithuanian Government succeeded in inserting in the treaty of peace concluded with Russia at Moscow on July 12, 1920,56 a clause (article 5) recognizing the permanent neutrality of Lithuania. Russia declared itself ready to participate in international guarantees of this neutrality if the other great powers likewise recognized and guaranteed it.
The same policy of peace has been followed toward Poland in spite of the Polish efforts to prevent Lithuania from becoming an independent state. The treaty of Suvalki, October 7, 1920,57 contains a provision for the determination of the frontiers between the two states and for the solution exclusively by peaceful methods of all problems existing between Lithuania and Poland.
Unfortunately on October 9, 1920, Poland violated this treaty by occupying the Lithuanian capital Vilna. In spite of repeated requests of the Lithuanian Government for the fulfillment of the convention, the Polish Government has refused to do so and has rejected the Lithuanian proposal to submit the matter to the Permanent Court of International Justice at The Hague.
[Page 189]At the present moment a third of the territory ceded by Russia to Lithuania by the treaty of peace is held by the Poles.
Nevertheless the Lithuanian Government has maintained its faith in a peaceful solution of the question of Vilna in reparation for the damages caused Lithuania by Poland. Its faith is strengthened by the signature of the Kellogg Pact between different states of the Globe. There is ground for hope that shortly this Pact will become the guiding principle of the entire World.
Finally the Lithuanian Government is profoundly convinced that the signature of the Pact for the Renunciation of War is only the first step toward the organization of world peace.
Accept, et cetera. Signed Professor A. Voldemaras, President of the Council, Minister of Foreign Affairs.”58
Copy to Legation at Riga. Original text by mail.
- League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. iii, p. 105.↩
- Ibid., vol. viii, p. 173.↩
- Subsequently the Lithuanian Minister in the United States stated that the above note was “merely a notification to the United States of the intention of the Lithuanian Government to adhere” to the treaty, and that his Government proposed to transmit “a formal declaration of adherence in due form as soon as the treaty has come into force through ratification by the signatory powers.” (File No. 711.60 m 12 Anti-War/5.)↩