124.60D/54
Memorandum of Conversation, by Mr. L. Randolph Higgs of the Division of European Affairs
Mr. Toivola17 called on me this afternoon pursuant to my request made after consultation with Mr. Atherton.18
I immediately handed to Mr. Toivola without comment Helsinki’s telegram no. 42 of January 1519 (transmitted in plain language). After he had read the telegram, I said that I wanted to make it clear that we were not protesting against Finnish censorship of our Legation’s telephone conversations, but that I was bringing this matter to his attention because it, taken together with many recent instances of unjustified Finnish press attacks on the United States and the Administration in particular, was having an unfortunate and cumulative effect on all persons in this country who had knowledge of these developments. I said that we could afford to overlook these matters in so far as the damage which they did to our own interests was concerned but that I did not think that Finland could do so. After recalling to Mr. Toivola the often expressed opinion in Finland that Finland could depend upon Britain and particularly the United States not countenancing any measures at the peace table contrary to basic Finnish interests, I remarked that their sense of prudence should warn the Finnish Government and people not to go too far along the lines recently manifested, lest they put too great pressure upon the friends of Finland in the United States and Great Britain. Mr. Toivola [Page 27] readily agreed that the recent trend of events in Finland did carry with it the danger which I had mentioned and he said that he was going to send a personal telegram to Helsinki strongly urging that more careful consideration be given to measures of the character in question. He said that the Finnish press could not be strictly neutral in its comments, in as much [as] it could obviously never criticize Germany in any way because of Finland’s complete dependence upon Germany at this time for foodstuffs. I said that I understood this but that to me it seemed unnecessary for the Finnish press to attack the United States and the President in the way they had been doing lately. I pointed out that an analysis of these attacks strongly suggested German inspiration and I intimated that I believed that the press attaché of the German Legation in Helsinki might be exerting pressure on the Finnish press and the Information Central along the lines he considered desirable. Mr. Toivola readily agreed that this was a reasonable conclusion.
As another instance of what I had in mind, I showed Mr. Toivola an intercept of a Tokyo radio broadcast allegedly quoting a statement of the Finnish Legation in Tokyo to the effect that recent rumors regarding a Soviet-Finnish peace were “nothing but Anglo-American machinations”. I made it clear to Mr. Toivola that I was not convinced that the Finnish Legation had, in fact, made any such statement but that if it had done so, I thought it a mistake from the point of view of Finland’s own interests, because, as he knew personally, this Government had had absolutely nothing to do with any of these recent rumors.
Mr. Toivola was obviously disturbed at all of these matters which I brought to his attention. Our conversation was entirely friendly and reasoning. He expressed appreciation for my bringing the matters to his attention.