AMERICAN’S MISSION

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 203, 25 May 1944, Page 5

AMERICAN’S MISSION

Swedish Attitude About Exports To Reich BUSINESS AND REALITIES (From Godfrey Blunden, Special Correspondent.) STOCKHOLM, May 12. Shares of Swedish ball-bearing companies yesterday dropped several points ou the Swedish Stock Exchange. But there is no evidence yet that the business mission from America which is being made by Mr. Stanton Grifis will be any more successful than previous diplomatic attempts to stop Swedish exports to Germany of ball-bearings and machine tools. • „ Mr. Grifis, chairman of Paramount Pictures Incorporated, arrived in Stockholm from the United States on Sunday.

He met a number of Swedish business men, including the brothers Jacob and Marcus Wallenberg, heads of a large banking corporation and acknowledged leaders of Swedish industry. He also talked with Harold Hamberg, head of S.K.F. ball-bearing company. Mr. Grifis yesterday emphasized that he was not the official representative of the American State Department, but was meeting the Swedes purely in a business capacity. It is believed, however, that he has full authority from the Allied Governments to speak bluntly and firmly, and if necessary to threaten Swedish industry with blacklisting after the war. At the same time, it is believed he also has power to promise the Swedes compensating trade concessions, if they accede to the Allies’demands. . At present the mission is suffering from overmuch publicity, with the result that the Swedes have the impression they are being bludgeoned into submission to the Allied demands. A good deal of this publicity has been in the Swedes’ own Press, which has given much space to pictures of Mr. Grifis in a camel-hair coat, Stetson hat, and spectacles, but, the Swedes say, without his machinegun The position as the Swedes see it, is that ball-bearings are good business, and the Allies are unable to bring trade to take their place. They point out that the trade treaty with Germany, under which the ball-bearings are shipped, was signed only four months ago with the full approval of, and after consultation with, the Allies. Military Situation. They say that to break this treaty now would bring all Sweden’s treaty arrangements into contempt, and would put them in a humiliating position. They believe it would certainly bring reprisals from Germany. The Swedes say the Allies are receiving far larger shipments of ballbearings than Germany, though how this is possible is not explained. The situation is one of hard realities. Neither Spain nor Turkey has given way to Allied pressure to stop exports to Germany merely because they have suddenly seen the error of their ways. In both cases it has been the developing military situation which has been the influencing factor.

In the case of Turkey, it has been Russian troops moving down the Black Sea coast and the imminent dissolution of the German position in the Balkans. In the case of Spain, it has been the reestablishment of Allied supremacy in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, and the expected developments in France. But, in the case of Sweden, there have been no military developments which relieve the country from the threat of German armies to the east, west and south of them. As soon as such developments occur, it is likely that the neutrality of Sweden will undergo very considerable changes in favour of the Allies. No doubt Mr. Grifis is in a position to discuss with the Swedes trade and economic arrangements which may be made immediately such developments occur. The Swedes, being themselves free from war, do not fully understand that their attitude has gone far beyond the niceties of diplomatic behaviour. Ballbearings are merely ball-bearings to the Swedes, whereas to the Allies they mean tanks and aeroplanes, which will cost nrecious lives to destroy on the battlefield.

SWEDISH FIRMS ADDED TO BLACK LIST

WASHINGTON, May 23. The State Department has announced the addition of 38 Swedish firms to the black-list, to become effective on June 2. The department reported that other Swedish firms are being considered. The Associated Press of America says that there is some apprehension in Washington lest Swedish business men . and officials should fail to realize the seriousness with which the United States is pressing the ball-bearing negotiations, in Sweden, hence the publication of the list.