Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1940, General, Volume I

758.60D11/8: Telegram

The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt) to the Secretary of State

Moscow, March 20, 1940—noon.
[Received 12:48 p.m.]

315. A Tass denial published in the Soviet press this morning refers to reports in the foreign press alleging that Finland, Sweden and Norway are continuing negotiations for the conclusion of a “so-called defensive alliance” for the military protection of the frontiers of Finland and alleging that Soviet Union has no objection to such a defensive alliance. The denial states that “Tass is empowered to declare that these reports concerning the position of the Soviet Union are not in accordance with the facts since, as is evident from the notorious anti-Soviet speech of the President of the Norwegian Storthing, Mr. Hambro, on March 14, any such alliance would be directed against the Soviet Union and would be in direct contradiction to the treaty of peace concluded between the Soviet Union and Finland on March 12.”

I am informed by the Swedish Minister that he went to see Molotov at the latter’s request day before yesterday concerning the reports of a defensive pact between Norway, Sweden, and Finland, and that Molotov had inquired as to the truth of these reports, to which the Minister had replied that Norway might be threatened by England and Sweden by Germany and that was the reason for the consideration which was being given to the possibility of a defensive alliance between the northern countries. Molotov then stated that the Soviet Government considered that any such alliance would be directed against the Soviet Union, to which the Minister blandly replied that this was ridiculous, inasmuch as there was no threat from the Soviet Union, which had just terminated a war against Finland.

The Tass announcement published today makes the Soviet attitude quite clear concerning the formation of any such northern bloc to include Finland and demonstrates that the Soviet Government through the medium of article III of the Treaty of Peace intends to exert some influence on the conduct of Finnish foreign relations.¹²

Steinhardt

12. The Ambassador in the Soviet Union sent to the Department of State, in his telegram No. 316, March 20, 1 p.m., an appraisal of the probable lines of the foreign policy of the Soviet Union following the end of the war with Finland; see vol. iii, p. 188.