Office of the Historian

858.248/10–544: Telegram

The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State

London, October 5, 1944—7 p.m.
[Received October 5—6:50 p.m.]

8372. ReEmbs 8205, September 30, 8 p.m.78 We have just been given by the Foreign Office the following communication concerning the release of airmen interned in Sweden.

“Thank you for your letter of the 28th September last in which you referred to the great importance which your military authorities attach to the release from internment as soon as possible of all U. S. air personnel in Sweden. I need hardly say that we fully appreciate their point of view.

Since then events have developed most favorably of their own accord in that, as you will no doubt have heard, the Swedish Cabinet have decided to release immediately 300 Allied airmen ‘on account’. Although the official intention is to release a corresponding number of Germans we understand that the release of further batches of Allied airmen may not in fact be held up until an equivalent number of Germans have arrived and been set free, but that we may expect further contingents of Allied airmen to be released ‘on account’ as soon as these initial 300 men have left Swedish territory and a few more Germans have arrived.

We have, however, been somewhat worried by the possible attitude of the Soviet Government to this repatriation of Germans who have come from the Eastern Front and may well return to fight there. We [Page 697] feel that the Soviet Minister in Stockholm79 should at least be informed of these arrangements and we have, therefore, instructed Mallet on the following lines:

  • ‘1. While I could not have agreed to our doing a deal with the Swedes for the release to U. S. of British and American airmen against German military personnel who have fled from a Russian sphere of operations unless the Soviet Government had been informed, we have now been placed in the position not of being asked to agree to an exchange but of being informed that a release of internees has been decided upon by the Swedish Government.
  • 2. All the same it is reasonable that the Soviet Government should be given equally favorable treatment with us and the Americans, the more so as the Germans in question have been fighting on the Eastern Front and may well return to the Eastern Front. The Soviet Government will certainly resent it if we appear to be acting behind their backs.
  • 3. Report that Russian internees do not wish to return to Russia may well (to judge by experience here) prove to be largely, if not wholly, unfounded. In any case that is not an argument which we can use with the Soviet Government and I think it would be only reasonable that the Russian internees should be considered for inclusion in the next batch of Allied prisoners to be released.
  • 4. It is, of course, for your Soviet colleague to protect her own country’s interest in this matter, but you should keep her informed of developments. You should first inform your U.S. colleague of your instructions and give him the opportunity of taking similar action. If you think it necessary you may discuss matter first with Secretary General of Ministry of Foreign Affairs.’”

When giving us this communication Foreign Office stressed orally that it attaches greatest importance to keeping the Soviet Government informed of any exchange which involves the release of Germans.

Winant
  1. Not printed.↩
  2. Mme. Alexandra Kollontay.↩