Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1941, General, The Soviet Union, Volume I

740.0011 European War 1939/16874

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)

[Washington,] November 18, 1941.

The British Minister, Sir Ronald Campbell, called to see me this afternoon at his request.

Sir Ronald, by instruction of his Government, inquired what attitude the United States was going to take in view of the contents of the recent note sent to the United States by the Government of Finland.

I said that for the moment no reply had yet been drafted, that the British Embassy would be informed either by Secretary Hull or by myself of the attitude which would be taken by this Government in that communication. I said that in the meantime I thought it important that the public in the United States be more fully apprised than had been the case so far of the real issues involved by the continuation on the part of Finland of the war against Russia, and that I had discussed today the desirability of certain prominent persons in the Administration making very clear statements during the next week or ten days covering these issues from the standpoint of the national interest of the United States.⁷⁷

I asked Sir Ronald if he had seen the press reports this afternoon of the statement issued by the Soviet Government.⁷⁸ He said he had not. I said I had myself only read the preliminary news flash but that it seemed to me that the statement in question was far from helpful and that it most decidedly would stiffen Finnish resistance to any attempt on the part of this Government to further a separate peace between Finland and the Soviet.

S[umner] W[elles]

77. See the press release of November 28, 1941, Department of State Bulletin, November 29, 1941, p. 434, which summarizes statement by the Secretary of State on November 28 regarding developments in the Finnish situation. Secretary Hull concluded his statement by saying that every act of the Finnish Government since the delivery of its note had confirmed apprehensions that it was fully cooperating with the Hitler forces. The statement was cabled on the same day to the Minister in Finland.
78. A communiqué issued by the Commissariat of Foreign Affairs on November 18, 1941, denied the Finnish contention that Finland was at war with the Soviet Union in self-defense against Soviet imperialism. This communiqué was published in the New York Times, November 19, 1941, p. 4.