760d.61/368: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 30—2:45 p.m.]
837. I have just been informed that the British broadcast from London at 7 p.m., Moscow time in reporting the expected departure tomorrow of the Finnish delegation for Moscow stated that a Finnish newspaper this evening had published a report alleging “when Paasikivi was in Moscow a high official of the American Embassy handed him a personal message of sympathy from President Roosevelt asking to be kept informed of the progress of the negotiations.” I need hardly assure the Department that this report, assuming it to have been published in a Finnish newspaper,61 is completely without [Page 985] foundation. Neither I nor any member of the Embassy staff saw Paasikivi during his visits to Moscow.
Repeated to Helsinki.
- The Minister in Finland had informed the Department in his telegram No. 298, October 30, that the report published in the Finnish press had been reprinted from the Stockholm newspaper Social-Demokraten (760d.61/367).↩