In London on 23 October 1918, Zigfrīds Anna Meierovics left his meeting with British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour carrying something still fragile, but immense on the scale of a state – oral recognition. Speaking for His Majesty’s Government, Balfour declared that the Latvian Provisional National Council was provisionally recognized as Latvia’s de facto government until the peace conference decided. A written note followed on 11 November; on 18 November, the Republic of Latvia was already being proclaimed in Riga.

The Latvian Provisional National Council had already formulated the demand for an independent democratic Latvian republic in January 1918, but the state still had neither an internationally recognized government nor secure borders. Balfour’s oral move in London gave the Latvian idea its first foreign-policy support even before the proclamation act.