860D.51/437: Telegram
The Minister in Finland (Schoenfeld) to the Secretary of State
[Received March 13—1:55 a.m.]
142. My despatch 1668, January 10 last.3 I have received from Minister for Foreign Affairs note dated today transmitting guarantee of Finnish Government covering obligations of Finnish-American Trading Corporation together with extract from Cabinet council meeting of March 8th authorizing guarantee and note addressed to the Secretary of State. Guarantee reads as follows:
“Guarantee: The Finnish Government hereby unconditionally guarantees the payment of obligations heretofore or hereafter entered into by the Finnish-American Trading Corporation in favour of the Export-Import Bank of Washington and/or the Reconstruction Finance Corporation up to a total principal amount of $30,000,000, therein included the obligations the payment of which has already been guaranteed by the Finnish Government up to the amount of $10,000,000, together with interest thereon.4 Helsinki this 9th day of March 1940. For and on behalf of the Finnish Government (signed) Mauno Pekkala, Minister of Finance, J. W. Minni, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance.”
Note to the Secretary of State is dated March 12, 1940, numbered 14309 and reads as follows:
“Excellency, I have the honour hereby to inform Your Excellency that Mauno Pekkala as Minister of Finance and Mr. J. W. Minni as Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance had full legal authority to execute on behalf of the Finnish Government the enclosed instrument dated March 9, 1940, guaranteeing the payment of obligations heretofore or hereafter entered into by the Finnish-American Trading Corporation in favour of the Export-Import Bank of Washington and for the Eeconstruction Finance Corporation up [Page 314] to a total principal amount of $30,000,000, together with interest thereon, and that the said guaranty as executed constitutes a binding and valid obligation of the Finnish Government.
I should be very much obliged to you if through your good offices the Export-Import Bank and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation be advised of the above statement.
Accept etc. (signed) Vaino Tanner, Minister for Foreign Affairs.”
I shall forward originals of two documents quoted above and of the Cabinet minutes by the next pouch.
- Not printed.↩
- For the guarantee previously given for $10,000,000, see telegram No. 436, December 14, 1939, 1 p.m., from the Minister in Finland, Foreign Relations, 1939, vol. i, p. 1029.↩