Office of the Historian

859B.20/4–1847: Telegram

The Acting Secretary of State to the Embassy in Denmark 1
top secret
u.s. urgent
Washington, April 22, 1947—6 p. m.

219. Although Danes may consider Weather Agreement (TopSec urtel 238, Apr 182) connected with settlement of question of our long-term military objectives in Green, in our opinion the two questions are totally unrelated. We hope that you will keep this clearly in mind and whenever the point is raised by Danes make every effort to bring Danes to our point of view. As matter of fact even if there were no 1941 Defense Agreement3 or if we had no long-term military interest in Green we would still have vital interest in continuing and amplifying our cooperation with Danes in Green weather matters not only as contribution to civil aviation generally, but also because of importance of extensive Arctic weather reporting to safety of our military aircraft operating in connection with fulfilment of our obligations in Germany.

It is quite possible that should you be unable thru persuasion to divert Danes from linking the two questions we may have to recommend to War Dept a revision of the desiderata set forth in Deptel 193, Apr 12.4 This is, however, one of normal hazards of any negotiation and question can be met if and when it arises. Please keep Dept fully informed as discussions proceed.

Acheson
  1. On February 6, 1947, the United States and Denmark agreed to exchange Ambassadors and to raise their respective diplomatic missions in Washington and Copenhagen to the rank of Embassy. The Legation in Copenhagen was elevated to the rank of Embassy on March 18, 1947. Minister Marvel had meanwhile been appointed and confirmed by the Senate as the Ambassador in Denmark.↩
  2. Not printed; it reported that representatives of the U.’S. Army and the American Embassy would shortly commence negotiations in Copenhagen with officials of the Greenland Administration regarding the renewal of arrangements for the operation of certain Greenland weather stations, some of which were owned and operated by the Danes and some of which were owned by the United States but operated by Danish personnel (859B.9243/4–1847). These negotiations were concluded on May 12, 1947, with the signing of memoranda of conversation entitled “Greenland Weather Activities” and “Operation of Thule Facilities”. The memoranda, which are not printed, were transmitted to the Department as enclosures to despatch 137, May 16, 1947, from Copenhagen (859B.9243/5–1647).↩
  3. See footnote 1, p. 657.↩
  4. Not printed.↩