860d.51/375: Telegram
The Minister in Finland (Schoenfeld) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 14—12:03 p.m.]
436. I have received from Finnish Minister of Finance, Mr. Mauno Pekkala, note dated December 13 transmitting guarantee of Finnish Government for payment of obligations entered into by the Finnish-American Trading Corporation up to $10,000,000 and requesting me to cable you that the guarantee may be communicated to Warren [Page 1030] Peterson [Pierson], Export-Import Bank. Document itself reads as follows:
“Guarantee. The Finnish Government hereby undertakes and agrees unconditionally to guarantee the payment to the Export-Import Bank of Washington and/or the Reconstruction Finance Corporation of obligations entered by the Finnish-American Trading Corporation up to a total amount of $10,000,000. Helsingfors, this 13th day of December, 1939. Finnish Government (signed) Mauna Pekkala. (Countersigned) Emil Pehkonen.”26
- Later, on December 28, 1939, the Department of State asked for slight changes in the wording to transform this “agreement to guarantee” into a “guarantee” of this loan, together with interest thereon, to satisfy legal requirements and to complete the records. This revised guarantee, dated January 9, 1940, was transmitted to the Department in telegram No. 22, January 11, 1940, not printed.↩