740.00112 European War 1939/10496: Telegram
The Minister in Sweden ( Johnson ) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 7—4:09 a.m.]
1177. Legation’s 922, March 17 repeated to London as my 212 and despatch 3036 March 18.72 Secretary General of Foreign Office Mr. [Page 490] Boheman handed British Minister and me this morning a memorandum73 in reply to joint Anglo-American protest of March 17 on Swedish infractions of war trade agreements. A summary of Swedish memo which is dated today is given in immediately following telegram. (See also Department’s 591, April 5, 9 p.m.)
After British Minister and I had read through memo Mr. Boheman said there were certain observations he desired to make. These were substantially as follows.
Tenor of Swedish memo which might seem strongly worded is due to fact that Anglo-American protest endeavored to construct juridical interpretations by which they attempted to show Swedes had committed breaches of agreement and accordingly asked reparations. Swedish Government contests this stand and has been obliged to frame its reply in accordance with form of protest. In spite of what has been said in reply memo, Swedish Government will endeavor to meet Allied wishes as far as possible. Swedish Government cannot and will not, however, give any assurance on matters which it does not know can be fulfilled, thus giving rise to additional recriminations. Allied Governments apparently are of opinion that Swedish exports for first half of year are only exports which matter and think that this is due to fact that in second half of year German exports will go down because of inability to deliver or disturbances in Baltic or decisive military events. Swedes are unable to pass any judgment on such a view but they must count on diminished trade with Germany as a result of factors mentioned above and also on possibility that Gothenburg traffic might be stopped for a considerable period. They must likewise count on imports from Germany stopping after a German collapse. All these factors make it of utmost importance to Sweden to secure as much as possible by way of imports before those events take place. He also pointed out that from Swedish point of view they have endless difficulties with Great Britain and United States on their side of trade agreement and that they are able to get nowhere in dealing with our Governments on these difficulties. As example, he referred to question of Swedish exports to Argentina. In spite of all this which would be motivation to Sweden to keep up imports from Germany as high as possible, Swedes are doing everything in their power to diminish imports from Germany. It might be thought that imports from Germany would go down automatically because of difficulty in effecting payment but Germans have been exporting so much that retarding effect of payment factor has not been so effective as expected. As practical means of slowing down imports from Germany all State authorities (the State is a heavy importer from Germany) have been instructed to cut their imports [Page 491] to a minimum. Swedish Government is likewise trying to influence private buyers wherever possible to limit their purchasers. Swedish Government is taking advantage of its wartime control of sales prices in Sweden to make imports from Germany less favorable.
In regard to iron ore Mr. Boheman stated that it was extremely difficult to find any effective measures. They are, however, trying to delay as long as possible opening of port of Lulea. This depends entirely on whether ice has increased lately and no ice breakers will move. By recent mobilization measures number of miners available for extracting ore has been reduced by as much as 30%. This is partly offset, however, by fact that there is a pool of unemployed labor which can be utilized to fill part of gap. As an example of frantic pressure which Germany is bringing to bear to obtain increase in Swedish exports of ballbearings to their account he said that Germans had recently offered Sweden 200 brand new Messerschmitts of latest type in exchange for an agreement to export ballbearings up to level of last year. This German offer has been refused.
My No. 256 repeats this to London.