760D.61/1256: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt) to the Secretary of State
[Received March 11—12:34 a.m.]
268. My 266, March 9, 9 p.m. The Swedish Minister, whom I met at the theater tonight,95 informed me in strict confidence that the Finnish delegation had again seen Molotov, Zhdanov and General Vasilevsky for 2 hours last night96 but had failed to obtain any modification of the Soviet [demands] which in addition to those [in] my telegram under reference included in the construction by Finland of a railroad across the waist of Finland from the Soviet border to the Gulf of Bothnia. A further meeting took place this morning97 with the same Soviet representatives who were even more adamant. Stalin was not present at either meeting.
The Swedish Minister added that he understood the British and French are now preparing for active intervention in Finland and that Great Britain and France, as reported by our Legation in Stockholm, have set the deadline for Finnish acceptance or rejection of the Soviet terms at March 12. He stated in this connection that the Soviet representatives, who presumably had been informed by the Finns of the prospect of Anglo-French intervention, had professed to regard it as a bluff.
The Minister told me that he had telegraphed his Government at 4 p.m. today requesting authorization to call on Molotov tomorrow morning and to inform him that: (a) it had been his understanding, and that of his Government on the basis of a written memorandum from the Soviet Government at the time the visit of the Finnish delegates was arranged, that aside from Hango, the Karelian Isthmus and the shore of Lake Ladoga, no other major demand would be presented; (b) in the opinion of the Swedish Government the British and French were not bluffing; (c) while the Swedish Government had gone on record as being opposed to the [transit] of English and French troops to Finland, public opinion in Sweden was rising to the point where the replacement of the present Government, headed by one by Sandler98 which would permit such transit, could not be excluded.