740.00119 European War 1939/2039: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Harriman) to the Secretary of State
[Received 10 p.m.]
2324. Personal for the President and the Secretary: The British Minister has informed me that according to the Swedish Government an unnamed pro-Nazi Swedish businessman has recently had talks in Berlin with a member of the German Foreign Office and Himmler.57 The Swedish Government has advised the British Government that Himmler indicated in these conversations that he was ready to send one army officer and one party official to meet the British to obtain definition of the term unconditional surrender.
The British Minister has been instructed to inform Molotov of the above and to ask Soviet approval of the British Government’s intended reply to the Swedish Government that unconditional surrender requires no definition.58
The British Minister has put this in writing to Molotov but has so far not received a reply.
- Heinrich Himmler, Chief of the German Police; Reich and Prussian Minister of the Interior.↩
- In telegram No. 8238, December 30, 8 p.m., to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom, the Department advised that it had given its assent to the proposed reply, but that it understood from the Embassy at Moscow that the Soviet Union had not yet expressed an opinion (800.00 Summaries/5v).↩