760d.61/478: Telegram
The Minister in Finland (Schoenfeld) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 24—2:25 p.m.]
350. My telegram No. 334, November 18. Minister for Foreign Affairs informed me this afternoon that Finnish Government had been unable as yet to make any further decision regarding procedure to be followed with reference to Soviet Union’s demands. Difficulty was that Molotov’s speech, October 31, had broken discreet silence in which negotiations should have been conducted and thus Russians themselves had raised issue of their prestige. Finnish Government was seeking some method of saving Russian face but in the circumstances it was extremely difficult to find it. In the meantime false and misleading reports continued to appear in Soviet press largely in the form of messages from Tass75 representative in Helsinki and Finnish authorities were refraining from provocative replies.
The Soviet Government had lately begun somewhat mystifying action by purchasing on the local market with American currency some 22,000,000 Finnish marks in currency and Finnish Government was at a loss to know the purpose of such action which would be carefully watched. Two hundred thousand dollars has been so used today. There had been many reconnaissance flights by Soviet aircraft near Finnish coast defenses and elsewhere and some increase of Soviet forces at certain places near the border but no military movements of importance. There was absolutely no truth in reports of incidents on the border between Finnish and Soviet troops or with reference to shooting down Soviet planes, the only incidents having been some losses from inadvertent passage over land mines by Finnish soldiers.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
- Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union, official communication agency of the Soviet Government.↩