INTRODUCTION

At the outbreak of war in September 1939 Finland was one of the least important European countries from the British point of view. By the early months of 1940 it had become the principal focus of Allied strategic interest. An expedition to help the Finns in the Winter War which broke out when the Soviet Union attacked Finland on 30 November 1939 was actually on the point of setting sail when the Finns decided to sue for peace in March 1940. Finland had become the cornerstone of an ambitious, not to say foolhardy, plan for large-scale Allied military intervention in Scandinavia. The aim of this chapter is not to trace the evolution of Allied policy during the Winter War, which has been the subject of a number of authoritative studies, but to examine the process by which Finland moved closer to the forefront of British policy towards the Soviet Union in the months prior to the Soviet attack of 30 November.

Although the British Government attached considerable importance to the improvement of relations with the Soviet Union (despite the signature of the Nazi–Soviet pact on 23 August 1939), there were signs from late September of a growing interest in Finland on the part of British officials and politicians. Finland had hitherto figured in British minds mainly as an obstacle to the alliance negotiations between Britain, France and Russia during the summer of 1939.