740.00119 European War 1939/1528: Telegram
The Minister in Sweden (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 3—7:40 p.m.]
2055. McClintock98 who has just arrived on courier trip wishes to report that last night Swedish Minister to Helsinki99 said that so far as his Government knew there was no truth in story reported in Helsinki’s 803, June 20, 11 a.m., of secret conversations between the Soviet and German Ministers1 here last April.2 However, Baron Beck-Friis said that recently President Ryti3 had intimated to him his belief that such conversations had taken place. Beck-Friis suggested that possibly the Germans were propagating the story in Finland as part of their “war of nerves” to keep the Finns on the path of co-belligerency.4
McClintock observed that if this were true the Germans were creating precisely an opposite effect as Ramsay’s5 policy had somewhat altered since he began to think a Soviet-German peace more than a remote possibility.
Code text to Helsinki by courier.
- Robert M. McClintock, American Chargé in Finland.↩
- Hans Gustaf, Baron Beck-Friis.↩
- Alexandra Kollontay and Hans Thomsen, respectively.↩
- The Chief of the Political Affairs Section of the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, S. J. Soderblom, who was reputed to know the members of the Soviet Legation most intimately, was reported in telegram No. 2199 from Stockholm, July 14, to be convinced that “there is no foundation for these reports.” (740.00119 European War 1939/1533)↩
- Risto Ryti, President of the Republic of Finland.↩
- For correspondence regarding the interest of the United States in Finland and in its possible withdrawal from war with the Soviet Union, see pp. 213 ff.↩
- C. Henrik Ramsay, Finnish Minister for Foreign Affairs.↩