File No. 657.119/243
The Minister in Norway ( Schmedeman) to the Secretary of State
[Received January 19, 6.10 a.m.]
480. I learn from a reliable source that Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Storthing and the Cabinet have agreed on the basis of a new proposal to be submitted to a secret session of the Storthing, and then transmitted to Washington. This proposal will request [Page 1113] consideration by this Government of its demands and specify the commodities and quantities thereof which Norway proposes to send to Germany. These quantities are considerably lower than those Germany has asked. The committee has been acquainted with statistics of exports to Germany which show that the enemy has been receiving much greater quantities than had been thought. The Government finds that a very recent census of food supplies in Norway shows an alarming shortage, supplies being sufficient for only a few weeks after which rations will have to be dangerously reduced. The idea of obtaining food from Russia or from Germany seems to have been abandoned. A feeling of assurance that Germany will not declare war on Norway in the event of acceptance of American conditions appears now to predominate, but intimations seem to have been received from the German side that the shipping between the United States and Norway might not in that case be exempt from attack and that all German export to Norway would be stopped. Information indicates that the acceptance of our conditions might be facilitated by our permitting Norway to send to Germany some calcium carbide but that the general outlook here is so black with regard to necessities of all kinds that even threat of German interference with shipping carrying imports to Norway will not prevail against imperious necessity of accepting American demands.
As the Department will note, all the foregoing evidences a complete reversal of the Norwegian Government’s position up to the present and if my information is correct the change is attributable to the recent census referred to and the danger of social disturbance which it is feared will at once ensue should the shortage in food and raw material be permitted to last long enough to cause more individual hardship and wider unemployment.
I am therefore of the opinion that the Government of the United States will do well to adhere strongly to principles thus far formulated with the possible exception of the matter of carbide which might be discussed in [last] resort. London informed.