Foreign Relations of the United States, Diplomatic Papers, 1943, The British Commonwealth, Eastern Europe, the Far East, Volume III

740.0011 European War 1939/31952: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Minister in Sweden (Johnson)

Washington, November 20, 1943—8 p.m.

1261. Please call on Boheman and inform him as follows (your 3613 and 3726, November 5, and 15, respectively⁴⁴):

We fully appreciate the Swedish interest in these matters and are desirous of keeping him and his Government as fully informed as possible. However, as there were no “secret agreements” reached in Moscow and he undoubtedly has a complete set of the published texts of the Moscow agreements, there is nothing more we can say, beyond what I said to the Senate and House on November 18⁴⁵ (you should furnish Boheman the text of that statement).

We realized that “interpretations” by “informed circles” etc. of the Moscow documents and the relationship thereof to the Atlantic Charter are and will be numerous and varied. We recommend that the utmost caution be exercised in accepting such “interpretations” as expressions of the official views of this Government unless they are clearly authorized statements of competent officials of this Government.

With particular reference to the position of Finland with respect to the Atlantic Charter and the Moscow agreements, which position we recognize as being of especial interest to Sweden, I stated in my press conference on November 15 that as far as this Government was concerned there was nothing new in our relations with Finland.

Briefly, our policy toward Finland is that the problem of Finland is one of the many problems yet to be settled in due course within the framework of the Atlantic Charter and in the light of the further development of the Moscow documents, and that it is not a special or separate problem. The conclusion would appear inescapable, however, that Finland’s contributions to German military operations will be taken into account.

Hull

44. Neither printed; these telegrams reported some criticism by the Secretary General of the Swedish Foreign Ministry, Boheman, of the Moscow Conference declarations and of the Four Nation Declaration there on November 1, 1943. He expressed his concern as to the effect of the demand for “unconditional surrender” of the Axis Powers, especially his hope that this demand did not apply to Finland.
45. On that day the Secretary of State delivered an address before a joint session of both Houses of Congress regarding the results of the Moscow Conference; see Department of State Bulletin, November 20, 1943, p. 341.