File No. 861.00/795
The Minister in Sweden (Morris) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 13, 1.30 a.m.]
1159. Your 4362 and 438.3 I have ascertained that Swedish Government does not intend doing anything premature regarding recognition of Bolshevik government in Russia. I have also ascertained [Page 298] that Swedish Foreign Minister states that they would not in any event recognize the Russian government before a regular government was established by the Constituent Assembly.
In a personal conversation with the Russian Minister here I learned that he had received telegram from the Russian Chargé d’Affaires at The Hague stating that the Dutch Minister for Foreign Affairs has sent instructions to the Dutch Chargé d’Affaires at Petrograd not to reply to Trotsky’s note and to have no relations with him.
The Russian Chargé d’Affaires at Christiania has informed the Russian Minister here that the Norwegian Minister for Foreign Affairs had informed him that the Norwegian Government would not take the initiative in recognizing the Bolshevik government.
On December 2 the Russian Minister here called on the Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs at his private residence and informed him that he had received two communications from Trotsky ordering him to submit to latter’s authority or deliver the archives to another, threatening violence in case of refusal to which communications the Russian Minister made no reply and he asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs what attitude the Swedish Government intend taking with reference to recognition of Bolshevik government. The Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs replied that his Government would be in no haste to recognize the Bolshevik government and would follow the lead of the other powers.