760d.61/516a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in the Soviet Union (Thurston)83
252. Please call at the Foreign Office and leave a copy of the following statement which I have this afternoon released to the press:
“This Government is following with serious concern the intensification of the Finnish-Soviet dispute. It would view with extreme regret [Page 1004] any extension of the present area of war and the consequent further deterioration of international relations. Without in any way becoming involved in the merits of the dispute, and limiting its interest to the solution of the dispute by peaceful processes only, this Government would, if agreeable to both parties, gladly extend its good offices.”
- An identical telegram was sent also to the Minister in Finland. The Chargé in the Soviet Union advised the Department in his telegram No. 967, November 30, that he had handed this statement at 12:45 p.m., to Assistant People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs Potemkin, who saw “no occasion for the use of good offices.” (760d.61/507)↩