File No. 860d.00/174
The Minister in Sweden (Morris) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 9, 1.50 a.m.]
2256. Answering your telegram 831, June 7. In an interview with member of the Finnish Legation this morning he stated that the Finnish government sympathizes with the population in Russian Karelia which has sent to the Finnish government at Helsingfors several deputations asking for help against the Bolshevik terror; that the Finnish government does not find it possible to give these people in Karelia any effective help although they sympathize with them; that although Finnish volunteers had joined the local White Guards in Karelia, there were no officers with them and these volunteers had joined entirely unofficially and without the consent of the Finnish government. He also said that on April 14 the Finnish government instructed their representative in London to inform the British Foreign Office, in answer to an inquiry from the British Government, that the Finnish government would do all in its power to keep the Murman open for international traffic.
The Finnish Legation here has promised to telegraph to Helsingfors and will advise me whether there has been any change in their policy since the telegram to London on April 14.
I have learned this morning through the French Minister at Stockholm that the French Consul at Helsingfors has notified the Finnish government that any hostile act with regard to the Murman Railway will be regarded as a breach of neutrality by the French Government.