Aivars L Jerumanis

Tyler Marshall's article (July 16) tells of the successful resolution of a British and Soviet settlement of a 60-year-old czarist obligation. On the surface, this appears to be an historic event, to receive payment from an adversary whose obligation predates its own regime. Yet Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze has outmaneuvered British Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe. The Soviets merely reviewed the British bank accounts, established equivalent claims and settled this historic grievance without a single ruble leaving the Soviet Union.

Their countries no longer exist as independent entities. They have no governments to report to. Yet, three diplomats from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania still wave their flags in Los Angeles with hopes that someday soon they will be representing more than a dream. For almost half a century, Los Angeles has been the only city in the world with honorary consulates for all three Baltic states.

Their countries no longer exist as independent entities. They have no governments to report to. Yet, three diplomats from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania still wave their flags in Los Angeles with hopes that someday soon they will be representing more than a dream. For almost half a century, Los Angeles has been the only city in the world with honorary consulates for all three Baltic states.

Tyler Marshall's article (July 16) tells of the successful resolution of a British and Soviet settlement of a 60-year-old czarist obligation. On the surface, this appears to be an historic event, to receive payment from an adversary whose obligation predates its own regime. Yet Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze has outmaneuvered British Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe. The Soviets merely reviewed the British bank accounts, established equivalent claims and settled this historic grievance without a single ruble leaving the Soviet Union.

On Monday--before the champagne, before the polka bands, before the folk dancing and speeches and toasts--Danute Mazeika went to a cemetery in East Los Angeles with an armful of chrysanthemums and two long-awaited words. "You won," the Lithuanian-American activist said silently to her grandfather's grave.

Hours after President Bush opened full diplomatic relations with Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, a Mission Viejo couple and their three small children visited Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles to offer prayers of thanks to the children's great-grandparents--Lithuanian freedom fighters who died without seeing their country liberated.