their standard time. A second motion for a standard time was proposed by the government in 1897, now proposing to adopt Eastern European Time as the nearest standard time to Helsinki time. However it was again without success, as the Diet thought that switching to the proposed GMT+02:00 would be met with protest from the railways which used Helsinki time, and subsequently result in there simultaneously being two time zones in use. Nevertheless, as the range of telecommunications increased, Helsinki time spread to common usage throughout the country as it made communications more convenient. Finland became independent in 1917, and in late 1919 the wrote a proposal to the government that Finland adopt Eastern European Time. The government agreed, and on 12 March 1920 the Minister of Justice decreed that from 1 May 1921 the standard time of Finland would be Eastern European Time. On 30 April 1921 at midnight on Walpurgis Night, the official time was advanced 20 minutes and 10.9 seconds to Eastern European Time, to become the standard time zone for the country. The time change went smoothly, and no major objections were made by Finns. The railways easily adapted to the change. 1929 proposal to adopt Central European Time Between the late 1920s and mid-1930s, development of railway and telegraph connections increased communication between Finland and its western neighbours. Finland's observance of Eastern European Time, while other countries to the west used Central European Time at GMT+01:00, caused difficulties for some businesses, such as differentiating office hours which resulted in inconveniences when making telephone connections. In June 1929, the Finnish Post and Telegraph Board proposed to the Finnish government that Finland's standard time be switched to Central European Time. The proposal failed to gain support, as the Ostrobothnia Chamber of Commerce released a statement in September arguing that Finnish companies were adequately adapting to the two time zones. The possible time zone change was discussed at the European Timetable Conference in Stockholm in October 1937, where the representatives of Finland, alongside Estonia and Latvia, agreed to present the proposal for the transition to Central European Time to their respective governments. Initial reactions by Finns to the proposal were positive, but the proposal was scrapped after the argued that it would misalign biological time and lead to detrimental health effects. The Finnish Post and Telegraph Board also withdrew its original 1929 proposal, and the Ministry of Transport