860D.77/86: Telegram
The Minister in Finland (Schoenfeld) to the Secretary of State
[Received 2:05 p.m.]
340. The Prime Minister informed me yesterday that in pending railroad traffic agreement with the Soviet Union, Finnish Government would stipulate that each Russian train using Finnish lines to Hango would be in charge of Finnish engineer and conductor and that 24 hours’ notice must be given of arrival of trains of which there should be no more than one in any 24 hours. It would also be stipulated that any troops so transported up to a specified total number should be unarmed.
Ryti added that the plan for special facilities for Russian transit had originally contemplated only commercial traffic corresponding to those granted Finland in certain Russian ports. The military scheme for traffic to Hango had emanated from the Soviets and though disagreeable to the Finnish Government the latter did not feel in view of the facilities lately granted by Sweden to the Germans over Swedish railroads43 that it could refuse. The experimental train referred to [Page 337] in my telegram number 327, July 29, was loaded chiefly with rails and material for construction of fortifications.
[For remarks regarding Finnish-Soviet relations by the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union, addressed to the Seventh Session of the Supreme Council of the Soviet Union on August 1, 1940, see paragraph 7 of telegram No. 945, August 1, midnight, from the Chargé in the Soviet Union, volume III, page 208.]
- The Swedish Riksdag accepted a German demand in a secret session on June 21, 1940, which became publicly known about July 5, allowing Germany to use Swedish railroads for the transportation of supplies and unarmed soldiers into Norway.↩