FORMAL BREAK WITH FINLAND

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 236, 3 July 1944, Page 5

FORMAL BREAK WITH FINLAND

American Announcement (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, June 30. The State Department, announced that the United States has broken off diplomatic relations with Finland, according to a Washington message. Mr. Cordell Hull, announcing the break, called. attention to the Finnish announcement on Thursday of the complete agreement reached between Finland and Germany to carry on the war. Mr. Hull said the Finnish Government thus formally admitted to the world that it has now entered a hard and fast military partnership with Nazi Germany for the purpose of lighting the allies of the United States in alliance with the enemies of the United States. Till now the United States had taken every opportunity to warn Finland of the inevitable consequences of continuing her association with Nazi Germany. These warnings had been ignored and the partnership was now complete. The United States Government must take into account the fact that a ( t this decisive stage in the combined operations of the forces of the United Nations the Finnish operations have a direct bearing on the success of the Allied effort. Notwithstanding the esteem in which the American people held the people of. Finland. further relations between the United Stales and (he Finnish Government were now impossible. The United States had asked Switzerland to assume representation of American interests in Finland. The break is regarded in Washington as little more than a gesture, since it accomplished little more than closing the legation at Helsinki, while the two remaining Finnish attaches at Washington will be sent home. The Finnish Minister bad already been proclaimed persona, non grata ou June 16. and was prohibited to leave the United States.