760d.61/742: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 13—12:55 p.m.]
1077. My 1020, December 5, 1 p.m. The Soviet press today publishes the text of the telegram received December 12 by the Soviet Government from the Chairman of the Committee of the League Assembly on the Finnish question and the text of the following reply sent by Molotov in the name of the Soviet Government on the same date:2j
“The Government of the U. S. S. R. thanks you Mr. Chairman for the kind invitation to participate in a discussion of the Finnish question. The Government of the U. S. S. R. however does not consider it possible to accept this invitation for the reasons outlined in the telegram of the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs of December 4 sent in answer to the inquiry of Mr. Avenol.”
- This telegram is printed in League of Nations, Official Journal, Nos. 11–12 (pt. ii), November–December 1939, p. 529.↩