BRITISH REGRET

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 180, 1 August 1941, Page 7

BRITISH REGRET

BREAK WITH FINNS

German Forces Operating In

The Country Rcc. 1 p.m. LONDON, July 31. The Finnish Minister in London was received by the Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office this afternoon and handed a copy of the reply which the British Minister at Helsingfors has been instructed to make to the recent Finnish aide memoire. The British reply is in the following terms:— "The British Government has received with regret the aide memoire of the Finnish Government of July 28 announcing that the Finnish Government had come to the conclusion that the Finnish Legation in the United Kingdom should suspend its functions for the time being as normal diplomatic intercourse between the two countries can hardly be maintained without complications. "Far from this opinion being shared by the British Government as stated in the aide memoire, the latter, as recently as July 22, announced in the House of Lords that while a decision to continue diplomatic relations might at any time be reversed in the light of events, the Government decided at present to maintain diplomatic relations with Finland although she was encaged in hostilities against our ally the Soviet Union, side by side with German troops, large bodies of whom were stationed on and operating from Finnish soil. "The action recently taken against Finnish trade with the transoceanic countries referred to in the aide memoire was taken by the British Government as the result of the establishment in Finland of large bodies' of German troops and the consequent use of tnat country as a base for military operations. in these circumstances it was clearly impossible for the British Government to continue to allow goods to pass through the blockade and reach territory which must be considered | largely under enemy control. "This measure was necessitated by German action and constituted an integral part of our war measures against Germany. Since it was not aimed at the Finnish people, the British Government did not consider it had need to render impossible normal diplomatic intercourse with the Finnish Government. If the Finnish Government is now to carry out u intention expressed in the aide memoire and withdraw the Finnish Legation from London, it follows that the British Government will be rnmoelled by the Finnish Government's action, to withdraw the British Legation from Helsingfors.' The FinlanoV radio stated that the break between Finland and Britain was entirely due to external factors. severed.