740.00112 European War 1939/9–844: Telegram
The Minister in Sweden (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 9—7:09 a.m.]
3561. Swedish Foreign Office according to Grafström74 informed Germans September 6 that effective September 9 all transit of goods through Sweden for German use will be stopped. It will be recalled that Mr. Boheman told me on September 4th (Legation’s 3476, September 4, 8 p.m.; 1002 to London) that the transit of all war material which previously had come to German-occupied Finland had been stopped and that the question of the cessation of the remaining traffic of the same kind to Norway was under serious consideration by the Government.
Mr. Grafström described this stopping of all German transit traffic as another step in Sweden’s rapid progress in the continuing breaking of its commercial relations with Germany. He added that for all practical purposes these relations had ceased.
He went on to say with reference to how the term “war criminals” might be interpreted by the Swedish Government that he was certain that “war criminals” would be construed as including looted property and that the Swedish Government would actively cooperate in efforts to discover and return such property (Legation’s 3542, September 7, 9 p.m., 1021 to London75).
My 1028, September 8, 7 p.m. repeats this to London.