Office of the Historian

856.48/12–644: Telegram

The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State

London, December 6, 1944—5 p.m.
[Received December 6—2:50 p.m.]

10779. The proposal for relief shipments to the Netherlands from Portugal described in the Department’s 10130, December 2, midnight,74 was not forwarded to the British authorities by the British Consul in Geneva. British have therefore not given approval to the journey of the Dunant.

The Foreign Office has under urgent consideration a further plan for relief shipments to the Netherlands from Sweden which it wishes to try out before proceeding with shipments from Portugal. Details regarding this plan and the reasons for it will be described in a later telegram.

Winant
  1. Not printed; this telegram informed the Embassy in London that the Department had given its approval to a scheme emanating from Geneva to send a shipment of relief supplies via the International Red Cross ship Henry Dunant from Lisbon to the Netherlands. The Department assumed that the same proposal had been submitted to British authorities, and inquired whether they had given their approval. (856.48/11–444)↩