Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1941, Europe, Volume II

859B.7962/50: Telegram

The Consul at Godthaab (Penfield) to the Secretary of State

Godthaab, April 12, 1941—9 a.m.
[Received 4:10 p.m.]

46. Department’s 34, April 10, 1 [6] p.m.¹⁶

1. The instructions contained in section 5 of the Department’s telegram under reference have been carried out.

2. Both Governors were understandably greatly disturbed and resentful over the ultimatum-like manner in which the agreement was presented to them. Svane’s resentment seems to be directed entirely against the Danish Minister whose statement that immediate agreement was the only alternative to British occupation he suspects is an exaggeration. Brun at Ivigtut without the background I have been able to give Svane seems to consider the Department as inexcusably lacking in regard for the Governors.

3. Neither Governor appears to find serious fault with the substance of the agreement. Brun, as the one most responsible for the Governors’ request last June that American forces be landed at Ivigtut,¹⁷ has always considered some arrangement similar to that now concluded as inevitable and desirable. Svane considers such an agreement much less undesirable than any other possible form of foreign influence in Greenland but would prefer to avoid concluding, the agreement until necessary to forestall occupation or other foreign intervention, a contingency which he apparently would be prepared to admit as inevitable only when faced with the fait accompli.

Penfield

16. Not printed; in section 5 the Department gave instruction that copies of notes exchanged in the agreement signed April 9 be made available to the Governor of North Greenland and the Governor of South Greenland (859B.7962/49b).
17. See telegram No. 34, June 13, 4 p.m., from the Consul at Godthaab, Foreign Relations, 1940, vol. ii, p. 369.