740.0011 European War 1939/15616a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Finland (Schoenfeld)
201. Last week I asked Procopé to consult his Government with a view to obtaining definite instructions on the basis of which he could later inform me in detail with respect to the intention of his Government to continue military operations against the Soviet Union and the relation between Tanner’s statement of September 14 and the action of his Government in continuing these military operations. Pursuant to this request, the Minister called on me yesterday.47
I proceeded at once to say that it was unnecessary to go over the pros and cons of the situation as the war relates to Finland and to the United States, or to the likes and dislikes of either Government with respect to Stalin and Hitler or their respective countries. I said that as heretofore stated by me to the Minister, I am glad to see Finland recover her lost territory. My Government, and country and I have been loyal friends of Finland and would like very much to see our fine relations continue, but even this consideration was beside the governing question just now. That question, which is of the greatest importance to my country without contemplating the slightest injustice to Finland and her best interests relates to the future safety of the United States and of all peaceful countries in the world; that this Government profoundly convinced as it is, that Hitler, practicing loathsome barbaric methods, is undertaking to conquer the earth; that in these circumstances my country is expending and is ready to expend 15 or 25 or 40 or 75 billions of dollars to aid in resisting and suppressing Hitler and Hitlerism; therefore, the one question uppermost in the mind of my Government with respect to Finland is whether Finland is going to be content to regain her lost territory and stop there, or whether she will undertake to go further, if she has not already done so, so that the logical effect of her course and action would be to project her on the side of Hitler into the general war between Germany and Russia and the other countries involved.
The Minister then undertook with maps to show that Finnish military forces had only advanced certain distances beyond the outside limits of their former borders; that the purpose in doing this was to safeguard the legitimate territory and boundaries of Finland; and that she has not participated in any attack on Leningrad. I replied that without going into detail as to the location and numbers of Finnish troops that have advanced into Russian territory, it is the view of my Government that the Finnish troops have gone considerably beyond the limits that would be legitimate for the mere protection of the true [Page 75] Finnish boundaries and that, therefore, this action goes beyond the reasonable interpretation and application of the Tanner statement of some weeks ago. The Minister tried to make it appear that these advances into Russia were necessary safeguards of Finnish territory. I replied that this would signify exactly nothing at the peace table and that it all depends on who wins the war. Having thus brushed aside this contention, I said that if Finland persists in these excesses then the Minister must understand clearly, and his Government must understand definitely, that in the end this Government is with Great Britain in every sense and that the Minister must recognize instantly that there is no other course that my Government could pursue except a suicidal one.
I further stated that before the British sent their recent statement to Finland I had hoped that the Finnish Government on its own initiative would announce that it did not plan to advance materially beyond its own boundaries; that it had been fighting for the purpose of regaining its lost territory and for no other purpose, and especially that it had no purpose to get into the general war on the side of Germany; and that the Finnish Government would not advance beyond such legitimate distances. I said that unfortunately the Finnish Government did not do this and instead it has been advancing further and further into the interior of Russia, which is calculated seriously to affect the situation of the Russians in the direction of Murmansk and eastward and this amounted to material aid to Germany. The Minister made no answer to this except to say that the Germans would come in and occupy all of these areas or that the Russians might come too near Finnish territory.
I left two propositions clear with the Minister, namely, that Finnish troops have advanced entirely too far into Russia for compliance with any legitimate plan merely to regain all lost Finnish territory, and secondly, whether the Finns persisted in maintaining this policy or extending it, his Government must understand that this Government is with Great Britain.
You should be guided by the foregoing in your further conversations with Finnish officials. You may also say to them that I am considering making public this Government’s attitude toward Finland as well as the details relating to the conversations which have been going on between this Government and the Finnish Minister in our desire to further a peaceful solution of Finnish-Soviet difficulties.48
[Page 76]Please repeat to the Legation at Stockholm with my instructions to apprise the Swedish Government for its information of this Government’s attitude in regard to this matter.
- The following four paragraphs reproduce the memorandum of October 3 (not separately printed) which Secretary of State Hull wrote describing the conversation with the Finnish Minister on that day.↩
- Most of the memorandum of August 18, by Under Secretary of State Welles of a conversation with the Finnish Minister (ante, p. 56), and the “pertinent part” of the memorandum of October 3, by Secretary of State Hull of his conversation with the Finnish Minister (being the second paragraph of this telegram), were released to the press on November 7, and were published in the Department of State Bulletin, November 8, 1941, pp. 362–363. See also telegram No. 226, November 3, to the Minister in Finland, post, p. 88.↩