740.0011 European War 1939/18303: Telegram
The Minister in Finland (Schoenfeld) to the Secretary of State
[Received 5:51 p.m.]
15. Department’s 214, October 17, 1941.8 The following summarizes our report on public opinion in Finland for the period December 21, 1941–January 4:
Public opinion toward the United States in this fortnight was conditioned by two factors: first, military reverses suffered by the United States in the Far East, and second, evidences of increasingly close cooperation between the United States, Great Britain and Finland’s arch enemy the Soviet Union as exemplified by the conferences in Washington9 and Moscow.10 The public felt a rather savage satisfaction at the injuries inflicted upon the United States by Japan in East Asia tinged with ill-concealed alarm that the United States whose moral prestige was still higher than that of other nations in the Finnish mind should have become openly a comrade in arms with the loathed and feared U.S.S.R.
Official statements in the United States regarding the war received but scant treatment in the Finnish press and passed almost unnoticed.
The Finnish attitude toward Germany was one of increasing irritation at the presence of German troops who, it was felt, had not pulled [Page 25] their own weight in the war on the Finnish front but had merely shivered helplessly in the forests waiting for the Finns to win the campaign. At the same time it was recognized that Finland was wholly dependent on Germany for military supplies and to an increasing degree for food. German influence continued to be manifest, particularly in the increasingly dictatorial tone toward the Finnish press of the German Press Attaché Metzger and in such examples of Nazi editing as the suppression of certain points of the Pope’s Christmas Eve message which ran counter to Nazi doctrine.
Signs of increasing restiveness in the Social Democratic Party continue to be manifest. Most significant of these was the presentation of a memorial to the Prime Minister11 on behalf of the Central Federation of Finnish Trade Unions on January 3 pointing out that a continuation of the war would lead to increased difficulties in all spheres and requesting amelioration of a number of conditions which were particularly onerous for the working class, particularly maldistribution of food. The very fact that such a petition could be addressed to the Government at this time was significant of how far the acid of war weariness had eaten into the social fabric in Finland. The schism between the Socialists and the powerful Conservative class in Finland seemed to be growing wider and some thought there might even be the possibility of an open break. Certainly the prospect of a voluble and widely spread socialist peace movement in Finland, the acclaimed North Star of the New Order, would cause no rejoicing in Berlin.
Reflecting the ground swell of popular discontent with the war were the exhortations at New Year’s time of the Field Marshal12 and the speaker of the Diet13 calling upon the home front to stand firm. Despite such exhortations there were evidences of an increasing impatience on the part of the common man with the aims of conquest proclaimed by the Field Marshal. The man in the street and the common soldier could not see why the army should hold distant Soviet Karelia when the men are needed at home.
It seemed probable that if Russia should continue to keep the Finnish front moderately active resistance here would eventually be worn down through inability of the people and the internal economy to stand the strain.
- Not printed; in this telegram the Department asked to receive a bi-weekly analysis of public opinion in Finland (740.0011 European War 1939/15898a).↩
- Meetings were held between British Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill and President Roosevelt and their advisers between December 22, 1941, and January 14, 1942. Correspondence on this First Washington Conference is scheduled for publication in a subsequent volume of Foreign Relations.↩
- For correspondence regarding the visit of the British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Anthony Eden, in Moscow toward the end of December 1941, see Foreign Relations, 1941, vol. i, pp. 192–205.↩
- Jukka (Johan) Wilhelm Rangell.↩
- Karl Gustav, Baron Mannerheim, commander of the Finnish armies against the Soviet Union.↩
- Väinö Hakkila.↩