740.0011 European War 1939/11827: Telegram
The Minister in Sweden (Sterling) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 9—5 p.m.]
323. Saw Finnish Minister this morning upon his return from Helsinki. He was extremely nervous and depressed. He stated that [Page 32] Germany had informed Finnish Government—in a manner tantamount to a demand—that more German troops were needed in Finland than stipulated under the transit agreement and that his Government was about to be forced to accede if it had not already done so by now; that one German division from Norwegian Finnmark was on its way to Finland and another division from the south, either from Germany or south Norway, which would probably land at Uleåborg,84 and that first concentration would be at Rovaniemi before moving east. He did not admit that demand had been accepted but inasmuch as he stated that Finnish Government had succeeded in its insistence that the provisioning and other expenses of German troops in Finland should be borne by Germany, I gather that Finns have given way on main points.
This leaves Finland, he continued, in desperate position. She wishes nothing more than to maintain her neutrality. She is now being forced into cooperating in Germany’s threat against Russia, and if Soviet Government agrees to German demands now being made in Moscow, and subsequently German troops are withdrawn from Finland, she will be left wide open to Russian aggression. Russian troops he added are being concentrated on Karelian border.
In my opinion there is the remote possibility that in the event of German attack on Russia, Germany may feel it necessary to make demands on Sweden as well, such as transit of German troops from Norway to Finland through Sweden or use of Gotland as air base.85