862.504/787: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Chargé in Finland (McClintock)

22. Procopé called on the Under Secretary on February 4 to present the Finnish Government’s memorandum77 replying to the memorandum referred to in the Department’s 16, January 30.

Mr. Welles stated that the only implication to be drawn from the document was that the Finnish Government was lending itself to the utilization in Finland of Norwegian slave labor sent for the purpose of undertaking work of benefit to the German Government; that it was incredible that the Finnish Government could expect the United States Government to believe that under present conditions in Norway [Page 232] the Norwegians to be sent into Finland could be expected to make truthful statements to the Finnish authorities as to their proceeding to Finnish territory voluntarily; that this Government knew only too well how this sort of operation was conducted by the Germans; that if a Norwegian were told that his family in Norway would suffer reprisals if he did not go to work in Finland he would in all probability go and for the same reasons would allege that he was going voluntarily; that this intended procedure was on a par with the policy which the Germans had pursued in other occupied European states in order to get slave labor.

Mr. Welles said that he wished to make it very clear to Mr. Procopé that actions of this kind by the Finnish Government could only have the most serious and prejudicial effects upon American public opinion which was already gravely exercised with regard to the policy which the Finnish Government had been pursuing; that such a case as this could only be regarded as one more instance of Finland’s lending itself to the most outrageous forms of German policy.

Hull
  1. Not printed; it stated that the Finnish Government had approved about 150 visa applications of Norwegians desiring to proceed to lumbering camps in northern Finland but that the Swedish Government had refused to grant visas for transit through Sweden. According to this memorandum, the Finnish Government was planning to inquire of each Norwegian citizen in the group whether he was proceeding to Finland “voluntarily” or “under compulsion”, and that those saying they were under compulsion would be free to accept asylum as political refugees. The general labor shortage in Finland for seasonal lumbering operations was mentioned in connection with Finland’s approval of the visa applications. (862.504/802)