740.0011 European War 1939/21166: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Sweden (Johnson)
296. We have been informed76 that early in March Soviet Minister in Stockholm raised with British Minister there question of effecting Finnish withdrawal from the war pointing out danger to Finland of cooperation with Germany after war turns against Axis and repercussions [Page 53] in Sweden from Finnish military collapse. British Government instructed Mallet and Ambassador at Kuibyshev to take no action on this matter which would give rise to Soviet suspicions that British Government is flirting with Finland at Soviet expense and that generally Finns and Russians should be left to find their own way to initiate a settlement. British appear to feel Finns would not be amenable to settlement until they can see probable outcome spring offensives.
We have been much interested in foregoing information which is passed on to you to put you in a better position to interpret any developments pertinent thereto coming to your attention. We feel British Foreign Office instructions mentioned are soundly conceived.
Department has repeated this telegram to Kuibyshev. Please repeat to Helsinki as no. 61.
- The Department had received its information through an aide-mémoire of April 13, 1942, from the British Embassy (not printed).↩