On Latvian Legation paper in London, numbered 4366, Kārlis Zariņš sent Lord Halifax a stiff, legally pointed protest on 23 July 1940. He wrote not as an exile, but as Latvia’s envoy: the new parliament’s “accession” to the USSR violated Article 1 of the Satversme, and the elections had taken place under foreign troops and Vyshinsky’s supervision. His request to the British was plain—do not recognize Latvia’s incorporation into the USSR.

The memorandum came after the Soviet-controlled July elections and before Latvia was incorporated into the USSR on 5 August 1940. Zariņš relied both on Latvia’s diplomatic authority and on the text of the Satversme to keep alive abroad the claim of Latvia’s legal continuity.