711.60D/108
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Acting Secretary of State
The Minister of Finland called to see me today. The Minister asked what my impressions might be of the interview which Mr. Schoenfeld had recently had with the President of Finland and with regard to the aide-mémoire which the President had sent him after the interview. I said that the most accurate answer I could give the Minister was that I had no reactions. I said that the conversation and the document in question seemed to me to leave the situation exactly as it had been before.
The Minister inquired whether Mr. Schoenfeld had been instructed to seek the interview because of information received by this Government that a new and intensified German offensive against the Soviet through Finland was probable. I said that this Government had no information in that regard and that the instructions sent to Mr. Schoenfeld had been sent in accordance with the policy which we had hitherto followed with regard to the Government of Finland, namely, of informing the Government of Finland with complete frankness of the attitude of this Government and of the course which this Government would be forced to follow in the event of any change for the worse in the situation which the Minister and I had often previously discussed.
At the conclusion of the interview, the Minister presented to me Baron Wrede, now attached to the Legation.