Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1939, General, Volume I

760d.61/584: Telegram

The Minister in Finland (Schoenfeld) to the Secretary of State

Helsinki, December 3, 1939—11 a.m.
[Received December 3—8:30 a.m.]

401. It having been announced in the press that the Finnish Government has addressed a communication¹² to the Secretary-General¹³ of the League of Nations invoking the provisions of the Covenant with reference to the aggression against Finland, Minister Swormstadt informed me this morning that though the Finnish Government had little hope of any practicable result from the appeal to the League,¹⁴ it had been advised by other governments which he did not name to take this step.

In strict confidence he informed me that yesterday the Swedish Government had been requested to make known to the Soviet Union the willingness of the Finnish Government to negotiate with the Soviet Government regarding its demands and though he did not say so, I gained the impression that the frame of reference for such negotiations would be wider than had thus far been deemed admissible by the Finnish Government.

Schoenfeld

12. The text of the Finnish appeal to the Council and Assembly of the League of Nations on December 3, 1939, is printed in League of Nations, Official Journal, Nos. 11–12 (pt. ii), November–December 1939, p. 509.
13. Joseph Avenol, of France.
14. For the action initiated by the Secretary General of the League of Nations, see telegram No. 302, December 3, 1939, from the Consul General at Geneva, Foreign Relations, The Soviet Union, 1933–1939, p. 800. For the steps taken in the United States inaugurating what came to be known as the “moral embargo”, see telegram No. 265, December 4, 1939, to the Ambassador in the Soviet Union, and footnote 2g, ibid., p. 801.