Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1939, General, Volume I

760d.61/214: Telegram

The Minister in Finland (Schoenfeld) to the Secretary of State

Helsinki, September 23, 1939—1 p.m.
[Received 2:15 p.m.]

191. Foreign Minister Erkko told me today that notwithstanding reports from various sources that existing Soviet-German political agreements¹⁴ also referred to Finland the Soviet Government had not yet raised any questions of a political character which might cause difficulties for Finland. The Minister said that nevertheless he expected the Soviet Government at any time to reopen the proposal made last March by the Soviet Foreign Trade Commissioner Stein involving cession to the Soviet Union of certain islands in the eastern part of Gulf of Finland. Meanwhile he had reopened negotiations with the Soviet Union for a trade agreement the formulation of which was now well advanced.

Repeated to Moscow.

Schoenfeld

14. For the texts of the Treaty of Nonaggression between Germany and the Soviet Union, and the Secret Additional Protocol, signed at Moscow on August 23, 1939, see Department of State, Nazi-Soviet Relations, 1939–1941 (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1948), p. 76.