860d.01/23: Telegram
The Consul at Helsingfors (Haynes) to the Acting Secretary of State
[Received May 7, 9.47 a.m.]
264. Helsingfors British Consul this afternoon informed Finnish authorities
“I am instructed by Earl Curzon of Kedelston to inform Finnish Government that Great Britain has recognized the independence of Finland and of the de facto Finnish Government”.
Finnish authorities inform me they had been advised by official representatives in Paris that such recognition would come from America and Great Britain simultaneously. Political conditions, same as in former telegrams except Bolsheviki have retaken Olenets. It would seem, judging from events in Karelia, that the British General Staff has accomplished this de facto recognition to obtain Finnish support against the Bolsheviki with the hope eventually of taking Petrograd with Russians from Finland in front.