Office of the Historian

740.00112 European War 1939/9842: Telegram

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

Washington, January 4, 1944.

66. Reference Stockholm’s 4120 December 21 and 4098, December 182 which were repeated to Embassy as their 824 and 821 respectively.

Department and FEA3 have considered the figures for Swedish exports of iron ore during November. Exports during the first 11 months amount to 9,648,000 tons, a figure which allows for a very small export tonnage during December if the ceiling of 9.9 million tons, in itself an extension of the ceiling established under the old Anglo-Swedish War Trade Agreement,4 is not to be violated.

For your information, we cannot accept Hägglöf’s5 contention that 10 million tons should be considered as the ceiling under the normal trade formula. An argument for such a ceiling has not been made before even by the Swedes, and Boheman,6 as recently as December 1st, stated that his Government had accepted the 9.9 million ceiling. (See Stockholm’s 3900, December 1st7 repeated to you as their 790.)

The very slight margin left to the Swedes for exports during December combined with Hägglöf’s plea for an extension in the ceiling make it appear almost inevitable that at least a 10–million-ton total will be [Page 457] reached, notwithstanding Hägglöf’s estimates as reported in Stockholm’s 4120, December 21. Under these circumstances and in the absence of some agreement for limiting first quarter shipments as proposed in our 7367, November 20,8 our hard-won limitation on iron ore exports in 1944 is of slight value.

We therefore suggest that you take up with MEW9 immediately the proposal that the British and American Legations press most urgently for a satisfactory answer to their joint memorandum of December 1st.10 If the Swedes argue that the reduction in exports requested by us is so severe as to disrupt their coal and coke imports from Germany, we might remind them of the evidence contained in Stockholm’s 4122 of December 21,11 a paraphrase of which has been sent to you by air pouch from the Legation which indicates that there are large stocks of coal and coke on hand in Sweden.

We also propose that the Swedes be informed, provided that the Legation sees no objection at this time, that we consider it of particular importance, at this stage of the war, that Section 7, paragraph 2 of the Swedish Declaration12 be applied by them in such a way that the export of no commodity or group of commodities limited under the Agreement should, in the first and second quarters, be disproportionately large relative to the exports in past years, or in relation to the amount of the ceilings for the whole year 1944. Seasonable allowances should, of course, be made for the seasonal factors and for the ordinary flow of trade. In connection with the above, the Swedes should be reminded that during the negotiations last summer13 the American and British representatives repeatedly emphasized the desirability of limiting exports during the first and second quarters to amounts in reasonable proportion to the amount of the ceilings for the whole year.

Department and FEA consider it of special importance that some satisfactory arrangement be made to reduce to a minimum the export of iron ore during the first and second quarters.

Hull
  1. Neither printed.↩
  2. Foreign Economic Administration.↩
  3. This agreement was signed on December 7, 1939, and announced on December 8; for substance, see W. N. Medlicott, The Economic Blockade, vol. i, in the British civil series History of the Second World War (London, His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1952), pp. 150–152.↩
  4. Gunnar Hägglöf, head of the Economic Division of the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, served as Chairman of the Swedish Trade Delegation in London.↩
  5. Erik C. Boheman, Secretary General of the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs,↩
  6. Foreign Relations, 1943, vol. ii, p. 822.↩
  7. Foreign Relations, 1943, vol. ii, p. 819.↩
  8. British Ministry of Economic Warfare.↩
  9. Not printed, but see telegram 7367, November 20, 1943, midnight, to London, and telegram 3900, December 1, 1943, 4 p.m., from Stockholm, Foreign Relations, 1943, vol. ii, pp. 819 and 822, respectively.↩
  10. Not printed.↩
  11. This declaration is included in a War Trade Agreement, initialed at London on September 23, 1943, between the United States, United Kingdom, and Sweden; for text of the agreement, with declarations by the three Governments, see Foreign Relations, 1943, vol. ii, pp. 806–815.↩
  12. See ibid., pp. 762–815.↩