740.00112 European War 1939/8189: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 10—11:55 a.m.]
2531. For Department and Board of Economic Warfare. Recently Prytz29 approached Embassy with request that Gothenburg ships at present outside Baltic should be allowed to return to Sweden with German permission. Embassy and British took stand that this request was acceptable provided that an appropriate number of ships left Baltic and Germans were granted no concessions by Swedes for allowing this movement.
Department and Board of Economic Warfare have just signified agreement to this plan on these general conditions. They have also assumed that this will not constitute reopening of traffic nor will change take place at more than five ships per month. We understand that 11 ships of the 16 at present outside Baltic are covered by this plan. Embassy will inform you in more detail of plan, if subsequent discussions indicate that it will be adopted. This however would appear rather doubtful.
- Björn Gustaf Prytz, Swedish Minister in the United Kingdom.↩