868.48/3144: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant)
2731. The Department has received from the American Minister at Stockholm the text of an Aide-Mémoire of the Swedish Foreign Office, dated June 10, submitting for the consideration of the American and British Governments a translation of a communication which has been addressed by Dr. Junod of the International Red Cross Committee to the Italian Government making specific recommendations regarding the distribution of the proposed relief shipments to be made to Greece in Swedish vessels. The Secretary General of the Swedish Foreign Office urged that the American and British Governments agree to the International Red Cross proposal as soon as possible. The British Foreign Office has no doubt received the same information from the British Minister at Stockholm.
The Department has also received detailed reports from Wadsworth and Berry, who have recently returned from Rome,38 regarding [Page 765] the distribution of the relief heretofore sent to Greece. These officers have had an opportunity to follow closely the work of the International Red Cross in connection with Greek relief, and express full confidence in the integrity and trustworthiness of the organization set up by M. Brunel for the purpose, and particularly in the dependability of M. Brunel himself. The addition of representatives of the Swedish and Swiss Red Cross should be sufficient, in their view, adequately to safeguard the distribution of the additional relief envisaged.
This Government is prepared to approve the recommendations of the International Red Cross Committee concerning distribution in Greece and will so inform the American Minister at Stockholm upon the receipt of information from you that the British Government likewise concurs.
- George Wadsworth and Burton Y. Berry, Counselor of Embassy and Second Secretary of Embassy in Italy, respectively, who had returned to the United States in the exchange of American and Italian officials in May 1942.↩