760D.61/169
The Chargé in Latvia (Packer) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 29.]
Sir: As of possible interest to the Department, I have the honor to report that in the course of a conversation on December 15th with the Finnish Minister, Mr. Palin, I referred casually to the recent speech of Zhdanov at the Eighth Congress of Soviets in Moscow which was the subject of the Legation’s despatch No. 260 of December 12, 1936.34 Mr. Palin, in reply to a direct question, stated that the Finnish Government was making no protest to the Soviet Government in connection with the speech in as much as the official text of the speech gave no ground for a protest on the basis of a threat to Finland. He felt, however, that there had in fact been a threat in the words which Zhdanov actually used.
Mr. Palin then mentioned the general question of Soviet suspicion of Finland and the possibility of Finland being an ally of Germany [Page 382] in any future war that might arise between Germany and the Soviet Union. He said the whole purpose of the Finnish orientation toward Scandinavia was to align Finland with the Scandinavian countries, which were neutral in the late war, in the hope that should a conflict arise in Eastern Europe, Finland would be able to remain neutral. He said the Finns, of course, realized that the maintenance of neutrality would be an exceedingly difficult thing to achieve but that they might possibly have almost as good a chance as did Holland and Denmark during the World War.
He said that there had been even before the World War a considerable number of ties between Finland and Germany and that many of these ties remained and that the Finnish people are especially grateful to the Germans for their assistance during the Finnish civil war, but that despite all these facts, Finland definitely does not want to become too closely involved with Germany.
While the Department will, of course, find little new in the above, it is submitted for such value as it may have at the present time as giving the current views of the chief of mission of Finland in this capital where he has the reputation of being a well-informed person.
Respectfully yours,
- Not printed.↩