760d.61/518: Telegram
The Chargé in the Soviet Union (Thurston) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 30—8:28 a.m.]
968. Embassy’s telegram 964, November 29, 11:30 p.m. The Finnish reply to the last Soviet note was accepted last night by the Soviet Foreign Office. No reply, however, has been made. The Finnish note is worded approximately as stated the telegram above cited89 with the addition that it proposes that in accordance with the nonaggression pact (which of course has been denounced by the Soviet Government) a committee of conciliation be convoked to examine [Page 1008] the existing differences or that alternatively they be submitted to neutral arbitration.
While the Finnish Legation has not yet received instructions from Helsinki to withdraw it is making preparation for withdrawal in anticipation of their receipt. Potemkin inquired of the Finnish Minister last night: “When do you expect to leave?”
[For the text of the message sent by President Roosevelt on November 30, 1939, to Finland and the Soviet Union, appealing to both Governments to refrain from air bombardment of civilian populations or of unfortified cities, see telegram No. 255, November 30, 1939, to the Chargé in the Soviet Union, Foreign Relations, The Soviet Union, 1933–1939, page 798.]