740.0011 Mutual Guarantee (Locarno)/576
The Minister in Norway (Biddle) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 7.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer to my despatch No. 133 of March 10, 1936,6 in which the Norwegian views regarding the action of Germany in establishing a military occupancy of the Rhineland were set forth. In relation to the statements made on the second page of this communication concerning Scandinavian joint representation, through Denmark, in the forthcoming meeting of the Council of the League of Nations, it seems of interest to record the stated refusal of Dr. Munch, Foreign Minister of Denmark, to commit the Northern States to a policy of sanctions in consequence of Germany’s alleged breach of the Locarno Pact and the Versailles Treaty through the dispatch of troops into the demilitarized zone. According to my information, Dr. Munch, acting on behalf of the other Scandinavian Governments, is basing his attitude on the stand taken last year, when, following the German declaration of intention to introduce general military service (March 16, 1935)7 those States had declared that, not being signatories of the Treaty of Versailles, they would take no action in the matter. It is my understanding, obtained from a well-informed official source, that Dr. Munch’s announced antagonism to sanctions had, in view of his joint representation of the interests of the Northern nations, come as a veritable “bombshell” into the current deliberations at London. It would, accordingly, seem that, coupled with [Page 254] the firm insistence on the part of the British and Belgian representatives at London that there shall be no war, and in view of their known opposition to the imposition of sanctions against Germany, this additional evidence of European lack of sympathy with extreme measures may serve to temper French intransigence.
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Respectfully yours,
- Not printed.↩
- See Foreign Relations, 1935, vol. ii, pp. 294–321, passim.↩