File No. 861.00/1103
The Minister in Sweden (Morris) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 16, 9.23 a.m.]
1503. The last deputy governor general of Finland,1 who occupied this position for nine months just prior to the recent revolution, is in Stockholm. As he is considered one of the best authorities on Finnish affairs, I arranged for a conference as I thought it would be valuable for the Department to have his views. Prior to being deputy governor general of Finland he occupied the chair of international law at the University of Helsingfors for eleven years. He is married to a daughter of Admiral Van Reypen, United States Navy.
The Finnish Red Guards are recruited almost entirely from the industrial laboring classes, although a small moderate element of this class is with the White Guards, the agricultural and farm-peasant type being almost everywhere universally opposed to the Red Guards. About 80 per cent of the Red Guards are Finns. The Red Guards at present hold the four principal cities of Finland, that is, Helsingfors, Tammerfors, Viborg and Åbo. It was to be expected that Mannerheim would encounter the least resistance in the northern part of Finland because with the possible exception of Uleåborg there are no [Page 751] important cities there and consequently less industrial labor organization. He will encounter his most serious opposition when he reaches the Tammerfors-Helsingfors-Viborg line. Russian troops from this district have not been removed and they are probably still being reenforced from Petrograd. The principal reason for this re-enforcement lies in the fact that the Russian Bolshevik organization, while having its principal offices in Petrograd, had its roots in Helsingfors and therefore the Bolsheviks are afraid of their own power if the Finnish bourgeoisie triumphs over the Red Guards. They are especially fearful lest the White Guards gain control of the Baltic Fleet as this would be a serious loss to the Red Guards and would even undermine the Bolsheviks themselves in Russia.
Of the 3,000,000 people in Finland, there are about 500,000 Swedes, not more than 50,000 Russian civilians, and at present not more than 20,000 Russian soldiers. The only food shipped into Finland by the Bolshevik Russians is for the Russian garrisons. This is not always sufficient and occasional looting results. The better class of Finns are to a man in favor of the White Guard. The reported wholesale murders and other violence in Finland have been exaggerated in the press.
The Finnish government are opposed to any direct assistance from Sweden. The reason for this is primarily that they desire to master the situation without outside aid but they also feel that if Sweden actively assisted them the present condition of civil war in Finland is certain to continue for some time to come. She might afterwards make demands which would be unacceptable to the Finnish government. What the Finnish government want, however, is for the Swedish Government to grant permission for the purchase in and transshipment through Sweden of arms and ammunition for Mannerheim’s forces. Another reason against active Swedish intervention is that Swedish officials know that there is a certain amount of discontent among Swedish troops and that the troops might waver if ordered out of the country. A third reason might be that Sweden does not want to run the risk of creating future complications with Russia and sailors [Socialists] here.
- Serge A. (Baron) Korff.↩