File No. 763.72119/1895
The Chargé in Sweden (Whitehouse) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 11.]
Sir: I have the honor to call your attention to the following articles in the Finnish-German treaties, dated March 7 last:
The actual peace treaty contains, on the whole, merely the usual regulations as to the resumption of commercial intercourse, the exchange of prisoners of war, mutual obligations of compensation, etc. Articles 1 and 30 are the only two of any far-reaching significance.
By Article 1, clause 2, Germany guarantees that Finland’s independence shall be recognized by all other powers, while Finland on her part must pledge herself not to cede any part of her territory to any foreign power or grant to any such power any suzerainty over her own sovereign power without having previously obtained Germany’s consent.
Article 30 treats of the Åland Islands, the fortresses on which are to be done away with. Concerning the future of the islands from [Page 770] a military and technical shipping point of view, an agreement will be made between Sweden, Finland, Russia, and Germany, and, if the latter desires it, other Baltic states also. The Åland treaty of March 30, 1856, will be adopted as the basis for negotiations. These regulations in the Finnish-German treaty have their counterpart in Article 6, clause 4, of the German-Russian treaty.
In connection with the Finnish-German commercial and shipping treaty concluded at the same time the following points will be of a certain interest:
It is laid down in Article 2 that the subjects of both the high contracting powers should conjointly enjoy the same privileges as to trade as the citizens in each respective country. As far as Germany is concerned this is a great step in advance, since formerly Germans in Finland only had the same rights as were accorded to subjects of most-favored nations.
In addition, by a note of the Finnish delegates, dated March 7, 1918, to the German Imperial Chancellor, it was stated that—
According to Article 2 of the commercial and shippings agreement between Finland and the German Empire of to-day’s date the subjects of the one country in the domain of the other country shall, in respect of trade and industry, be on an equal footing with the inhabitants. The Finnish government presumes that the above decision will not cause any change in the rules that obtain in Finland, which, in respect of certain companies, make it a condition that Finnish state authorities should be among the members of the committee. Nevertheless, the Finnish government will, with all possible speed, propose to the Finnish Landtdag a law rendering it possible to place the subjects of the German Empire on an equal footing with the inhabitants of Finland in that respect also, and will make every effort to pass and enforce the law.
Article 6 of the commercial treaty shows that Finland, although looked upon as a favored nation in Germany, has not the right to claim the same advantages which the latter can bestow on Austria-Hungary or any other direct or indirect neighboring country that has a customs league with Germany. At the same time Finland is bound, apart from frontier traffic within an area of 15 kilometers, not to grant any special advantages to Russia, but rather to establish a customs boundary respecting that country.
The Finns have reserved the coastal traffic between home ports to vessels flying the Finnish flag and the only concession Germany was able to obtain was in Article 12 which states that the advantages in this regard, which Finland eventually may grant to any third power, will also be awarded to Germany.
I have [etc.]