701.60D11/273½
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Secretary of State (Long)
The Minister of Finland came in to request information as to the reason for which he had been denied the right to go to New York on the 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th of this month. I treated the matter lightly and told the Minister that it was not necessary to go into explanations as to why the application had been denied; that he of course recognized the right of any government to deny such an application under the circumstances at present existing; that there was no personal reflection upon him and no intention to prevent him from attending to the business of his mission but that the Government had exercised its right to say that for these particular dates and at that particular place it was inconvenient for the Minister to proceed.
He asked if restrictions had been placed upon Minister Schoenfeld and whether he was allowed to proceed to his country home, about forty miles from Helsinki. I told the Finnish Minister I did not know whether he could proceed to his country home but for the last six months he certainly would not be making it a habit to proceed to his country home. I then stated that whereas our action has nothing to do with the theory of retaliation and should be entirely divorced from that thought, yet the fact remained that several officers of the United States in Finland had been denied the right to proceed to certain destinations and that one officer had been denied the right to visit with his family outside Helsinki. I stated I realized the conditions were different because Finland was actually the scene of warfare, but under the conditions existing here, the United States must insist that it had the right at any time to approve or deny such an application.
The Minister mentioned his summer plans and wanted to know if there would be any objection to his having his family, which would include a young child and a baby, take a place outside of Washington. He asked particularly if he might go to the seacoast. I said there would probably be no prohibition upon it but it might be difficult and embarrassing for him from time to time because there were regulations owing to the war in force along the seaboard. It would be more difficult for a foreigner, even if he were a Minister, than it would be for an American, and there would be plenty of difficulties for Americans. He seemed to agree that it would border upon the impractical.
There is no doubt in my mind that the Minister associated this denial with the possible immediate probability of his demission. I obtained from him the unmistakable impression—not from his words, however—that he felt this might be a part of a breach of relations.