760d.61/750: Telegram
The Minister in Finland (Schoenfeld) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 14—3:10 a.m.]
435. Minister for Foreign Affairs told me tonight that he was awaiting report of action of the League of Nations on Finland’s appeal but understood it would condemn Russian aggression24 and leave member states free to choose amount and kind of support to be given this country. This support would be financial, economic and military depending on various factors affecting countries lending support and would include despatch of volunteers and military supplies especially from Scandinavian countries. He expected help from Britain and France among others.
[Page 1029]Nevertheless, Tanner said, in response to inquiry, that “the end is not in doubt” since Finland could not indefinitely withstand overwhelming numbers, although military situation remained favorable due among other factors to seasonal and climatic conditions. He made it clear that final collapse of Finnish resistance from sheer exhaustion was not excluded and permitted inference that help must be immediate and generous if it is to be effective.
He explained absence of Russian bombing of Helsinki since December 1 only on the ground of unfavorable weather conditions and denied report that it is due to notice rumored to have been served by Finns that in the event of repetition of bombing of the capital Leningrad would be bombed in reprisal. He intimated, however, that latter contingency was doubtless present in Russian mind.
Minister of Foreign Affairs said it had been rumored but was not yet confirmed at Tallinn that General Laidoner,25 lately at Moscow, had been asked by the Russians to dissolve Estonian Civic Guard and to adapt organization of Estonian Army to Russian methods, which he thought would mean complete subjection of Estonia if this report were true, and also possibility that Estonia would be forced to fight Finland.
Answering my inquiry as to the effectiveness of announced Soviet blockade, Tanner said he had not taken it very seriously until today when he learned of loss of [a] German vessel in the Gulf of Bothnia yesterday as result of submarine attack and he feared that Soviet submarines may have entered northern reaches of the gulf before mining thereof was completed. He spoke of difficulty of supplying Finland from abroad and considered overseas route through Norway the best but that even this would be difficult.
- For the expulsion of the Soviet Union on December 14, 1939, from the League of Nations, see telegram No. 324 of that date from the Consul General at Geneva. ibid., p. 804.↩
- For reports about General Laidoner’s visit in Moscow, see telegram No. 1041, December 8, 1939, from the Ambassador in the Soviet Union, and telegram No. 155, December 15, 1939, from the Minister in Estonia, Foreign Relations, The Soviet Union, 1933–1939, pp. 980 and 981, respectively.↩