458.11 Dexter and Carpenter/119: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Minister in Sweden (Morehead)
15. Your No. 16, March 29, 1 p.m. The views of the Ministry of Communications doubtless will be influenced as heretofore, by its desire to disclaim responsibility under the provisions of Swedish domestic jurisprudence without special regard to international law or the international obligations of the Swedish Government and if the case is handled in this instance as when last presented, the views of the Ministry of Communications will be passed on to this Government as representing the views of the Foreign Office. This Government cannot regard any superficial consideration of the case in the light of municipal law alone as satisfying the international obligations of the Swedish Government in the matter. Department is unable to perceive how the Foreign Office can fail to be seriously impressed with the merits of the case as stated in instruction number 96 of February 23. This Government cannot advise Dexter and Carpenter to initiate anew, in Swedish courts, judicial proceedings with respect to the violation of a contract which was made in the United States to be performed in the United States and in the jurisdiction of which the resulting controversies have been fully litigated at the instance of the Swedish Government.
[Page 600]In order to avoid the possibility of such a response as indicated above, and a consequent waste of time in arriving at a solution of the case, you may informally communicate with the Foreign Office in the sense of the foregoing and impress upon it the necessity of a basic and fundamental consideration of the matter by the Foreign Office itself as an international claim of one Government against another.
For your confidential information—Department desires to avoid arbitration of the case but if Swedish Government persists in its views that the question must be litigated in Swedish courts there appears to be no other alternative.