740.00112 European War 1939/1–1245: Telegram
The Ambassador to the Norwegian Government in Exile ( Osborne ) to the Secretary of State
[Received January 13—noon.]
Noweg55 6. Ranking officers of the Economic Department of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs have shown this Embassy a list of proposed Swedish exports to occupied Norway during the first half of 1945 now under discussion in connection with tripartite agreement between United States, United Kingdom and the Swedish Governments. They state that elimination of this trade would seriously affect the civilian population of Norway and that they are satisfied that controls exercised by Swedes and Norwegians effectively prevent any benefit to the German authorities in Norway. They further state that they received recent assurances from reliable sources [Page 746] in Norway in this respect. For example, applications for Swedish funds to be used for payment of imports from Sweden are refused if the import is taking place at the request, direct or indirect, of German civil, military or police authorities. Applications are also refused if there is a German interest of any importance in the Norwegian consignee. They also state that no goods of Swedish origin have been reexported from Norway to Germany.
The Norwegians say that continuance of this trade is of paramount importance to them and they wish it maintained as long as it does not benefit the enemy. They state that cessation of trade with Sweden might result in a German demand that certain goods exported from Norway to Sweden under the Norwegian-Swedish trade agreement should be exported to Germany. Representations similar to the above have been made to the British through MEW.
I assume that full consideration will be given in Washington to the importance to the Norwegian civil population in relation to the resistance movement of continuation of this trade. This matter has been discussed with Stone of London Embassy’s Economic Warfare Division who suggests that substance of this telegram be communicated to FEA’s Blockade Division.
This has been repeated to Stockholm.
- Norwegian Series.↩