740.00112 European War 1939/11–1244: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Chargé in the United Kingdom (Gallman)
9559. The Department appreciates the promptness (Embassy’s 9881, November 12) with which its 9501 was taken up with the British. We also are glad to note that Foot concedes that joint Anglo-American objectives in Sweden have not been fully attained and desires to find a practical and satisfactory joint approach which would accomplish our purpose without delay.
The British formula of November 10 (your 9796, November 10) was given us in detail by the British Embassy on the afternoon of November 11. The second proposal set forth in your 9881, November 12, coincides in all major respects with an alternative procedure which was before the President when he made the decision set forth in the Department’s 9462, November 10.18
Neither the November 10 formula nor that of November 12 entirely meets our requirements in that (1) they contemplate shipment of buna and accessories to which we are not at this time able to agree and (2) they would open the way for further delays by the Swedes in agreeing to a point which this Government considers of the highest importance, namely, the immediate cessation of all Swedish exports to Germany.
It should be clear from our 9462 and 9501 that this Government is not prepared to ship buna and accessories to Sweden at this time.
This Government feels strongly regarding continued Swedish delay in fully responding to our request of last August for immediate cessation of Swedish exports to Germany, thus contributing to Germany’s ability to prolong the war. We feel that the nature of the decisions set forth in our 9462, which were made at the direction of the President, and military requirements as seen by this Government, do not admit of further delay in again pressing the Swedish Government. We are anxious, however, to have the British associated with us in making this demand and hope that instructions can be sent to Mallet very shortly in this sense. Johnson can defer action on his instructions for 2 or 3 days to permit of further consideration by the British authorities.
Sent to London, repeated to Stockholm as Department’s no. 2285.