795.00/12–1450
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Deputy Under Secretary of State (Matthews)
Subject: Message from Swedish Ambassador in Peiping.
| Participants: | Mr. Ragnvald Bagge, Minister-Counselor, Swedish Embassy |
| Mr. Matthews—G |
In the absence of Ambassador Boheman, the Swedish Counselor, Mr. Bagge, called at 6:30 p. m. today at his request. He referred to the earlier conversations which Ambassador Boheman had had with Mr. Rusk and me concerning the approach of the Swedish Ambassador at Peiping to the Chinese Vice Foreign Minister (see my memorandum of November 17, 19501). He said that Ambassador Hammarstrom had been requested to visit Vice Minister Chang yesterday afternoon, Peiping time. He referred to Chang as an official one grade higher than the Vice Minister Hammarstrom had seen before. Chang referred to Hammarstrom’s previous visit and asked that the following message be conveyed to the Swedish Government (this is the English translation of Hammarstrom’s telegram read to me by Mr. Bagge):
“China hopes for a peaceful and early solution of the Korean conflict which was caused by the attack of the American imperialists. How is this to be brought about? The solution lies solely on the American side where nothing has been mentioned about a ‘truce’. Neither the United States nor the United Nations has hitherto ‘given a concrete opinion about hope for peaceful settlement.’ The six-power resolution since it criticizes the justified action of Chinese volunteers would by no means be an effective means to that end, but rather would ‘hamper’ a peaceful solution.”
Hammarstrom added “My question whether China would not advance the matter by making a positive suggestion was answered in the negative.”
[Page 1546]I thanked Mr. Bagge for bringing me the foregoing message so promptly.
- Not printed. In it, Mr. Matthews reported that Ambassador Boheman informed him that the Swedish Ambassador in Peking had expressed to the Chinese Foreign Ministry Sweden’s concern over developments in Korea and the Far East, stated that neither the United States nor the United Nations had any hostile intent against the People’s Republic of China, and Indicated that any Chinese concerns about frontier problems or questions relating to hydro-electric power could be solved by negotiations, in which Sweden would be glad to assist. No response was made to the Swedish offer other than to say that an answer might be forthcoming in a few days, which Ambassador Boheman took to mean that the matter had to be referred to Chou En-lai and Mao Tse-tung. (795.00/11–1750)↩