File No. 657.119/245

The Minister in Norway ( Schmedeman) to the Secretary of State

[Telegram]

478. The following is substance of a conversation I had yesterday with the Prime Minister: He stated that Norway could not enter into negotiation with the United States on the terms proposed at present and confirmed statement of the Minister for Foreign Affairs that the cessation of export of calcium carbide to Germany would be embarrassing. He asked my opinion in regard to a suggestion which has been discussed that the export to Germany of a certain amount of minerals for civilian use be allowed, to which I replied that it was not probable that Germany would keep any promises of this sort and that in any case we should only be assisting the enemy to release his own materials for military uses in order to replace them with [Page 1112] Norwegian products. He stated that he earnestly desired to come to an understanding with the United States and that it was only fear of Germany which prevented it. He said that it might be possible that Norway would have to discontinue sending supplies to England and France. Further, that Minister for Foreign Affairs had informed him that the German Minister had insisted that they must send pyrites to Germany; I told him that I believed my Government would be opposed to any such action. He expressed the opinion that it would have been advisable to transfer the negotiations from Washington to Christiania, to which I replied that as they had gone so far I considered a change inadvisable.

Foreign Affairs Committee of Storthing has been in secret session for the past two days in order to discuss the American proposal and I am inclined to believe that a new counter-proposal is being drafted which will be submitted to the Storthing before being sent to Washington. According to my information the Committee for Foreign Affairs now seems to be divided into three factions, namely, the first led by President Mowinckel which favors making arrangements with Germany, the second led by the Prime Minister who momentarily appears to have support of Minister for Foreign Affairs, which favors policy of concluding no agreements and advocates continuance of free exchange of commodities on the basis of compensation, the third apparently led by former Cabinet Minister Konow which favors acceptance of our proposal.

It seems highly improbable that the Norwegian Government intends to make any agreement at this time and [my] belief is that it would be best, after presenting our final proposal in definite form, to close the negotiations and await ulterior advances on the part of Norwegian Government which may be anticipated in consonance with the internal situation in Norway as affected by political and military events.

Foregoing telegraphed to Embassy at London.

Schmedeman