File No. 860d.00/6
The Consul at Helsingfors (Haynes) to the Secretary of State
[Received January 27, 4.40 p.m.]
13. Immediate recognition Finland independence would save us from being slandered as boasted champion small nations who [Page 744] would sacrifice Finland in fruitless expectation of gaining a few feet of French trenches by clinging to a Russian corpse. Immediate recognition will gain a pro-American preponderance of the sympathy of the Norwegian-Swedish-Danish league wherein, when Finland is a member, Sweden would be outweighed, besides assuring to us post-war trade with Russia through Finland as a back door. No other small nation clamoring for recognition offers such historical worthiness nor such geographical trade advantages.
I beg recognition before England, not only to escape the intensely increasing hatred of England because of non-recognition, but because delay gains only uncertainty.