Council of Foreign Ministers Files: Lot M–88: CFM London Documents

Memorandum by the United Kingdom Delegation to the Council of Foreign Ministers

C.F.M.(45) 25

Proposals for a Peace Treaty With Finland

The United Kingdom Delegation offer the following preliminary observations upon the Soviet Delegation’s memorandum circulated to the Council as C.F.M.(45) 7.74

2.
The United Kingdom Delegation agree with the Soviet Delegation that the relevant Articles of the Armistice with Finland signed at Moscow on the 19th September, 1944, provide a basis for the drafting of certain parts of the Treaty of Peace with Finland. The United [Page 229] Kingdom Delegation suggest that the action already taken by the Finnish Government under Article 21 of the Armistice may make it unnecessary to repeat in the Peace Treaty the whole substance of Article 21.
3.
Taking as a basis Article 4 of the Armistice, the United Kingdom Delegation propose that the Peace Treaty should lay down the character and numbers of the armed forces which Finland should be allowed to retain; should impose the necessary limitations upon the manufacture of war material in Finland; and should provide a small inter-Allied Military Inspectorate to supervise the execution of the military clauses of the Treaty in succession to the Allied Control Commission which would be dissolved upon the entry into force of the Treaty.
4.
The United Kingdom Delegation assume that on the conclusion of the Peace Treaty facilities of a military nature will no longer be required of the Finnish Government.
5.
The United Kingdom Delegation consider that the provision in Article 18 governing the return of Allied vessels should be included in the Peace Treaty, together with a provision for compensation for their damage or destruction.
6.7.8.
[Here follow texts the same, mutatis mutandis, as section 10, subsections i, ii, iii, v, vi, and viii, and sections 11 and 12 in Proposals for a Peace Treaty with Roumania (C.F.M.(45) 21), page 219.]
  1. September 12, p. 148.