760D.61/1450: Telegram
The Minister in Finland (Schoenfeld) to the Secretary of State
[Received 3:30 p.m.]
305. Minister for Foreign Affairs informed me today that recent representations of the Soviet Government regarding the Åland Islands had presented the alternatives of complete neutralization and return to the status of the Geneva Convention of 1921 or a joint militarization by Finland and the Russian Soviet Government. Since the second alternative would have caused concern both in Sweden and in Germany, the Finnish Government had preferred the first. Accordingly Finnish garrison was being withdrawn and guns and other equipment removed while the few gun emplacements and unarmored casemates were being destroyed. The Minister said he was recommending to a Cabinet meeting today that the Government give its consent to the assignment of a Soviet Consul at Mariehamn as also requested by the Russians.
Repeated to Moscow and Stockholm.