701.60D11/363
Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State (Long)
The Minister of Finland requests for himself and for members of his staff permission for repeated and frequently contemporaneous visits out of Washington. If the engagements are carried out which are indicated by the requests for permission to visit New York, there are frequently a number of them together in New York.
In view of the present situation vis-à-vis Finland and Germany, it is my opinion that the Department should exercise a more strict control over the movements of the Minister of Finland. Through other sources we know that he has several contacts in New York which are not related to Finnish business. He may have other activities that we know not of. I think it would be entirely proper to limit the Minister to a maximum of four consecutive days in New York within each calendar month—in case he applies for permission to go.
The individual members of his staff should be more strictly limited and should be confined to Washington unless it appears that there is some unusual urgency or official importance to Finland connected with their visits. They should not be in New York at the same time with the Minister or with one another. Nor should it be arranged that one or the other of them would be there most of the time.
None of this has any relation to the Minister’s visits to and from his summer home or to the visits of his designated secretariat to his summer home.