740.00112 European War 1939/8–1144: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Minister in Sweden (Johnson)
1597. There seems to be some conflict between the information given you by Boheman and that given the British by Hägglöf upon his return to London as regards the German ports to which Swedish sailings have been stopped. It is difficult to escape the conclusion that this confusion is deliberate and designed to confuse the issues involved. We continue to be unimpressed by the Swedes’ desire to postpone further action to terminate Swedish sailings to enemy ports until further military developments have taken place in the Baltic and are unmoved, as stated in Department’s 1584, August 9,22 by their concern over losing their ships which are now in enemy ports.
If the Swedes really desire to contribute to the harassment of the enemy, it seems to us that immediate cancellation of insurance of all Swedish vessels serving enemy needs in the Baltic would be fully justified by the military situation in the Baltic of which even the man in the street is cognizant. There also seems to us to be no reason why the Swedes cannot take appropriate action to withdraw Swedish tonnage now in enemy ports within say a week at the outside and to prevent further sailings to such ports either through cancellation of insurance or through administrative action.
Please bring the foregoing observation informally to the attention of Boheman as soon as possible.
Sent to Stockholm, repeated to London as no. 6348 and to Moscow as no. 1913.
- Not printed.↩