760d.61/455: Telegram
The Minister in Finland (Schoenfeld) to the Secretary of State
[Received noon.]
334. My telegram No. 328, November 13.74 Minister for Foreign Affairs informed me this morning that following return of Finnish delegation from Moscow there had been several Cabinet meetings to consider their report and that as yet the Government had taken no decision as to how or when the negotiations with the Soviet Union would be continued, if at all. The Minister said a full report had also been made by him to the parliamentary leaders. He volunteered to supply me with a secret study of the strategic significance of the Russian proposals and plans as revealed during the negotiations. In reply to my inquiry whether it was the Government’s view that these plans had any relation to Soviet-German cooperation, he answered in the negative. Answering further inquiry as to suggestions that Russian policy now contemplated deliberate economic pressure on Finland, the Minister said that Finnish exports were moving in increasing quantity through Narvik and that paved motor road was being constructed to [Page 997] Ljungen Fjord in Norway for use in moving heavy quantities by truck. Meanwhile the Minister felt that development of relations with the Soviet Union would depend in great measure on the general course of the war and primarily upon the question whether Soviet Government really desired to fasten its control on this country which would not be tolerated, or whether it had less extreme purposes.
- Not printed.↩