Finland’s first conflict with non-Russian foreigners as an independent nation?

I once bumped into an interesting letter dated April 9th, 1918 from the British Foreign Office addressed to Rudolf Holsti, a Finn who was somehow connected with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. The date of the letter shows that Finland was still absorbed in a bloody civil war (January 27-May 15, 1918) after becoming independent on December 6, 1917.

The letter is revealing and not only shows the tense atmosphere in the country, but could possibly be the first official protest from a foreign government on the ill-treatment of non-Russian foreigners in independent Finland. World War I was still raging.

The letter reads:

Dear Doctor Holsti:-

With reference to our conversation yesterday you asked for particulars of the ill-treatment of certain British and American officers in Finland to which I referred.

As you are probably aware, a Mission consisting of Lieutenant Hitching a British officer and Lieutenant Tholing an American were recently sent to Wasa in order to negotiate a passage through Finland for the Allied Legations from Petrograd, who were detained there. They were accompanied by Lieutenant Granserre, the French Consul at Tornea. On arrival at Sunajoki (sic) they were received by Monsieur Procopi, the Chief of Police, who adopted a very aggressive attitude and demanded Lieutenant Hitching an explanation of his visit to Finland during such a crisis, reminding him that England was at war with Germany who was Finland’s best friend. Various absurd charges of speaking against Finland were made against the members of the Mission, but they were of course entirely without foundation and no attempt was made to substantiate them.

They then proceeded to General Mannerheim’s headquarters, where they were courteously received although they had no success in securing the object of their visit. Upon arrival at Wasa they went to the principal hotel where their appearance in the dining room cause considerable sensation. The people were openly hostile in their attitude and alleged the officers were Russian spies in English uniforms. A Finnish Jäger approached them and requested them to leave the premises, and on their refusal he retired with other officers to consult as to whether Lieutenants Hitching and Tholing should be expelled from the hotel by force. Shortly afterwards a second Jäger officer came up to them and gave them two minutes to leave the room, whereupon they withdrew amid shouts of abuse from the whole company, with the exception of some Swedish journalists who left at the same time and expressed their sympathy.

Lieutenant Hitching also reports that during their brief stay in the room the orchestra were especially requested to play the “Wacht am Rhein“. This was clearly intended as a studied insult to the Allied officers as it had already been played once before.

Perhaps the most serious feature of the incident was that Mr. Sario, the Minister of Foreign Affairs was present the whole time but did nothing whatever to protest and obviously regarded the whole matter as a good joke.

I think you will agree that this affair was an unfortuante one, and indicated a very unfriendly attitude on the part of FInnish authorities and the Finnish army, which renders it very difficult for us to give Finland all the assistance we should desire to give in her present difficulties. You may recollect that we were speaking recently of the possibility of appointing an informal British representative at Wasa, and you considered this a good proposal. I fear that after this incident the position of such a representative would be a quite untenable one, and it will be very difficult for us to proceed further with the idea at present.

Yours sincerely,

E.H. Carr (signed)

PS (handwritten) This incident is inferred to in a long an interesting article in today’s “Tmes.”