Post-World War I dispute over sovereignty of the former German Prussian territory of Memelland.
Located on the Baltic Sea north of the Memel River, the area was mainly inhabited by Lithuanians. In 1919 at the Paris Peace Conference , the newly formed state of Lithuania requested annexation of the area. A commission recommended formation of a free state, but Lithuanian inhabitants of the region took over the government in 1923. Protests by the Allied Powers resulted in the signing of the Memel Statute to establish Memelland as an autonomous region within Lithuania.