740.00119 European War 1939/1381: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Standley) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 7—1:15 p.m.]
252. My 242, April 3, noon. I called on Molotov last evening at his request. He presented me with aide-mémoire which states in paraphrase translation as follows:
“The Soviet Government is grateful to the American Government for information transmitted on April 2 by Ambassador Standley to Molotov regarding the conversations between the American Chargé d’Affaires at Helsinki and the Finnish Minister of Foreign Affairs concerning the proposal of the American Government to act as intermediary in establishing direct contact between the Soviet and Finnish Governments for discussing questions relative to the conclusion of a separate peace.
The Soviet Government has also studied the memorandum of the American Government of April 2 and deems it necessary to state as follows. With reference to the proposal concerned in the memorandum to the effect that the American Government desired to be in a position to reply to the Finnish Government that if the Finnish Government were prepared to participate in a direct and confidential exchange of views with the Soviet Government the Soviet Government for its part would be similarly disposed, the Soviet Government wishes to refer to the statement made on March 20 by Mr. Molotov to Ambassador Standley to the effect that the Soviet Government had no reason to suppose that Finland could break away from Germany or was prepared to offer the Soviet Union peace terms which would be acceptable to it. The Soviet Government, therefore, has no reason to believe that direct contact between the Finnish and Soviet Governments will lead to positive results under present condition.
The Soviet Government would be able to express its agreement to the desire of the American Government set forth above if the Soviet Government could receive information which would permit it to believe that the minimum conditions for the conclusion of peace with Finland, conveyed to the American Government on March 27, were acceptable to Finland.”
In the ensuing conversation I recalled that the Soviet terms were given me exclusively for the information of my Government and remarked that by implication the present Soviet memo might be construed to mean that we should communicate these views to the Finnish Government.
Molotov inquired whether my Government desired to do this. Referring to my memo of April 2, I replied that this was obviously not the case but added that in view of the nature of the Soviet reply my Government might now consider the situation in a different light. Molotov then [proceeded?] carefully and explained that since the Soviet Government did not wish to show any indication of taking the [Page 262] initiative in the question of peace overtures and since it had no reason to believe that the Finns desired peace, were prepared to accept the Soviet conditions or to offer terms which would be acceptable to the Soviet Government, it had communicated its terms for the exclusive information of the American Government; however, if the Soviet Government could obtain definite information to the effect that the Finns were prepared to accept the Soviet minimum terms then there would be no objection to their being communicated to the Finnish Government.
It would seem to me that the Soviet reply, if accepted, would place us in the position we wish to avoid, i.e., acting as an intermediary so far as exchanging information with regard to peace terms.