840.50 Recovery/1–548: Telegram
The Ambassador in Sweden ( Matthews ) to the Secretary of State
priority
18. Depcirtel December 31, 11 a. m. and mytel 6, January 2.1 I find a widespread failure in Sweden to place any confidence in early practical results of cooperative action begun with CEEC. There is a tendency to welcome ERP as helpful to the reconstruction of Europe and therefore indirectly helpful to Sweden; as I have reported there is, however, no sense here of the urgency and vital necessity of ERP if a chain of political and economic developments is not to be started which would ultimately end Sweden’s own independence. There is, furthermore, a tendency to feel that it is in the security interest of the US and required by our need to maintain American export markets for the US to see ERP through. In any event Swedes feel they have already made their contribution to Europe in credits extended after the war.
In view of the great influence and authority which Dag Hammarskjold had in the Swedish Government, I urge that the Department have a frank and emphatic talk with him in the sense of its Cirtel December 31 prior to his departure from Washington.2
- Telegram 6 from Stockholm, not printed.↩
- In telegram 23 to Stockholm, January 15, 1948, not printed, the Department informed the Embassy that after an exchange of views, the Swedish Financial Advisor and Envoy (Hammerskjold) promised to inform his government of the U.S. position (840.50 Recovery/1–548).↩