860D.00/1257
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
The Minister of Finland called to see me this afternoon after having telephoned daily since last week for an appointment. The Minister said that he was without information from his Government, that he was deeply concerned with regard to the present situation and would be grateful for any information I could give him.
I limited myself to reiterating statements already made to the Finnish Government by this Government through Mr. McClintock in Helsinki and I said it was a matter of deep regret to me personally that the Finnish Government had refused to avail itself of the offer made by this Government and that of course it was obvious that the reply of the Government of Finland was due to the fact that it was no longer a free agent but was acting completely under German influence. I said it was obvious that in such a situation as this relations between our two countries could not be of service to the interests of either country.