Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1945, Europe, Volume IV

360d.115/3–2645: Telegram

The United States Representative in Finland ( Hamilton ) to the Secretary of State

Helsinki , March 26, 1945—4 p.m.
[Received 10:38 p.m.]

129. Does the Department object in principle to our utilizing article XII of the Finnish armistice agreement³⁴ to protect American commercial and related interests here? The Department will recall that a similar article is contained in the Hungarian, Rumanian and Bulgarian armistice agreements.³⁵ Does the Department consider that under this article American interests in Finland should be made whole and kept whole from Finnish laws or administrative decrees resulting from conditions arising out of Finland’s participation in the war, such as requisitioning (with compensation) apartments, residences, and farms in order to provide housing and land for dispossessed Karelians³⁶ and other Finnish nationals, from capital levies under which individuals would pay in cash and corporation would pay in stock, et cetera? If the Department approves I have in mind leaving an informal memo with the Foreign Office that the American Government, of course, expects the Finnish Government not to adopt or put into effect with respect to American interests in Finland measures finding their basis in conditions arising out of Finland’s participation in the war which would be inconsistent with article XII of the Finnish armistice agreement.

Please instruct.

Hamilton

34. Article XII of the armistice agreement between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, on the one hand, and Finland, on the other, dated September 19, 1944, provided: “Finland undertakes to restore all legal rights and interests of the United Nations and their nationals located on Finnish territory as they existed before the war and to return their property in complete good order.”
35. For text of the armistice agreement with Hungary, see Department of State Bulletin, January 20, 1945, p. 83; for text of the armistice agreement with Rumania, see ibid., September 17, 1944, p. 280; and for text of the armistice agreement with Bulgaria, see ibid., October 29, 1944, p. 492.
36. Inhabitants of the Karelian territory taken from Finland under the terms of the armistice of 1944. This territory became the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic.