760d.61/739
Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of European Affairs (Moffat) to the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
Mr. Welles: At your request, I saw the Finnish Minister on his return from New York yesterday evening. Here in brief is his story:
He said that he had had a long telephone talk yesterday morning with Mr. Ryti, the new Prime Minister. Mr. Ryti said that despite [Page 1022] certain gestures which he was making—such as an offer to negotiate with Moscow, an appeal to the League, et cetera,—he was under no illusions that war with Soviet Russia could be avoided. On the other hand, he was optimistic,—surprisingly optimistic, said Mr. Procopé,—of the outcome, if Finland could obtain help from abroad, and particularly from the United States. He accordingly made an urgent plea over the telephone for help. This can be divided into three parts:
- 1.
- Money. The Prime Minister said the figure that he was hoping to obtain in the United States was sixty million dollars, but said that of this sum twenty-five million dollars were immediately necessary. Mr. Procopé had been in New York and had been in touch, directly or indirectly, with various of the big bankers. He was convinced that there was no possibility for Finland to borrow money in Wall Street. That left two possibilities—the first an RFC17 credit, the second a Government loan. With regard to his negotiations with Mr. Jesse Jones, the latter had proposed a very involved scheme whereby a corporation should be set up with American and Finnish capital on a 5 to 1 basis; this corporation would receive credit to buy an American commodity, such as wheat or cotton, which it could then sell in Liverpool and loan the proceeds to Finland. If Finland went broke, the corporation would go bankrupt. According to the Minister’s viewpoint, this scheme had possibilities, but the figures discussed by Mr. Jesse Jones were too small (six to ten million dollars), and the machinery was too complicated. However, he was seeing Mr. Jones at twelve o’clock today, and would pursue the matter further. The other plan he had in mind was a Government loan. Here he felt that if the President would announce that the moment Congress met in January he would ask for a large Government loan for Finland, the effect abroad would be excellent, and possibly he could succeed in obtaining an advance from Wall Street pending the vote by Congress. Throughout, the Minister was thinking and talking in very large sums.
- 2.
- Supplies. Mr. Ryti had telephoned a list of the necessary war supplies which Finland needed, the most important item of which was pursuit planes. The minister said that he was under specific instructions to ask for the right to purchase United States Army stocks. I intimated that I did not think this would be possible. In that case, continued the Minister, he was to ask that the Army grant Finland priority over its own orders in the matter of the delivery of supplies from American factories. (Parenthetically, the Swedish Minister called at the Department with the same request yesterday afternoon.)
- 3.
- A break of relations with Russia. When the Minister had spoken with Mr. Ryti and suggested the possibility of such action here, Mr. Ryti had replied “That would be bright.” The Minister was worried over the fact that so many Republicans were not only urging a breach in relations, but were using this as a means of attacking the Administration. He asked if I thought a decision was imminent; I replied that an immediate decision seemed improbable as the Secretary of State was on the point of leaving for an absence of two or three days in Chicago.
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- Reconstruction Finance Corporation.↩