857.01/6
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Secretary of State
The Minister of Norway called at his request. He said that a puppet government had been formed at Oslo and he had been notified to take orders from it alone, or he would be held accountable. He stated that, instead of doing so, he would be entirely loyal to his regular government and that he would be glad to stay on here, if we had no objection. I assured him that he would be welcome here so long as he was the representative of his regularly constituted government, as at present.
The Minister then urged that this Government do not declare a state of war between Norway and Germany. I said to him that, naturally, [Page 157] this Government was loath to do this. I then added that, unfortunately, his own Foreign Minister, in reply to a specific inquiry on this point by Minister Harriman, had stated that “while Norway had not declared war on Germany, at the same time as Norway had been attacked, she considered herself at war”. I further added that this Government was placed in a difficult situation with respect to this matter. The Minister said there must be some misunderstanding and that he would beg of me to give him time to communicate with his Foreign Minister through his own Legation at Stockholm before taking affirmative action here. I said that I would do the best possible in this respect but that I could not promise unqualifiedly, since I could not know how much time he might need in which to get a reply from his Government nor how much pressure might arise on this Government for action.