740.00112 European War 1939/9–244: Telegram
The Minister in Sweden (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 3—12:14 p.m.]
3454. For Department only. My 3270, August 24, 3 p.m. I was informed by Mr. Boheman this afternoon that British Minister and I would receive reply on Monday67 to the joint démarche. Mr. Boheman did not tell me exactly what it would be but he said that it would go very far in meeting our views and would leave the door open. I asked if it met the issue on the moral and political stand we were asking Sweden to take. He replied that he did not think it went as far as we wished. He then proceeded to an analysis of what he said was the opinion not only of the Government but Foreign Affairs Committee of Riksdag which was fully consulted in the matter. He added that the reply had been approved without a dissenting vote by the entire Cabinet and Foreign Affairs Committee. He said that the people concerned in the decision cannot see any median stand between entry into the war and declared policy of neutrality. He said this opinion was expressed even by peasant members of Riksdag who are on the Riksdag Committee. The difficulty in their thinking is that they have no peg on which to hang an official action which would amount to a practical break with Germany and certainly of all economic relations. It is not, he said, that anybody has any apprehension of danger to Sweden or any feeling that there is the slightest moral obligation to Nazi Germany, but that it would be a wrong thing for Sweden to do from her own point of view unless Germany gives them an overt occasion. This, Boheman says, the Germans are most [Page 631] sedulously refraining from doing; that their attitude now is obsequious and that although they have stated they regard stopping of shipping as a political act they have made no threat of stopping the Goteborg traffic or taking any other counter-measure. He said that no arguments at the moment could change Government and Riksdag opinion.
Boheman told me that he had personally had a terrific struggle with the Prime Minister, the Government and the Riksdag members in trying to make them understand our point of view and the necessity for Swedish action to meet it. He frankly said that he had not “been able to deliver the goods” but he thought that he had been able to get their concurrence to a reply which went much further toward meeting our full demands than the Government was at first disposed to consider.
He then, speaking personally, pleaded that we give him a little more time. He said that the moment there was the slightest incident, of a German action against Sweden, a German occupation of the Åland Islands or any form of German threat or menace, he believed he could bring the Government to take the action we are demanding. Boheman today seemed to have lost all trace of his earlier irritation and anger when I talked to him of the Anglo-American demands and spoke calmly and reasonably. He said that he understood our point of view and that if he were an American he would undoubtedly share it, but he said that while he does not for practical reasons agree with the prevailing Swedish view he says that he also understands it thoroughly and that from the viewpoint of the Swedish position in Europe, Swedish policy and ethical conceptions, the view is right even if it may be unwise.
He then said that he would like to mention one thing on a purely personal basis. If American propaganda agencies feel that public attacks on Sweden must continue, he hopes for the sake of the future that they at least can be kept to the level of facts. He mentioned in this connection the despatch of correspondent Parsons68 from France which has been given wide currency here, accusing Sweden of having exported a large amount of the military equipment found in German hands in France, and taken up by the American broadcast from London in Swedish yesterday. He said that while some Americans may be indifferent to its effect in Sweden the dissemination of information of that character which is a “total lie” is doing great damage to the American position and reputation. He says every Swedish peasant knows that Sweden has exported no arms whatever since the beginning of the war and he said, again speaking personally, that he thought it was unworthy of a country with the high moral standards which [Page 632] the United States professes and has carried out in her international relations to allow such statements to be broadcast on the radio.
With reference to Parson’s despatch he said if there is one sin which Sweden has not committed since this war it is the exportation of arms or weapons of any kind to Axis Europe; that if any Bofors69 guns have been found in France they must be French guns; that a considerable export of Bofors guns was made just prior to the outbreak of the war to France, Poland and Czechoslovakia particularly to France and that many of them must have fallen at some time into German hands.
Boheman concluded by saying that the “peg” on which Swedish Government could have the desired action against Germany might come on the scene at any moment, in a day, 5 days, 2 weeks.
I thanked Boheman for giving me his personal views so frankly and told him that while I understood the Swedish motivation I was convinced that they were wrong and that they would be making a capital mistake not to give an unequivocal reply to the démarche. He said simply that he knew that that was my view and the American view but that he could only hope we would not find the reply wholly unsatisfactory and that he had done the best that was possible at the moment.