740.0011 European War 1939/2463
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Secretary of State
The Minister of Norway called at his request and said that he had not been able to hear anything from his Government, but that he desired to hand me a copy of his King’s proclamation of April 14, 1940, [Page 162] which he had taken from the New York Times (copy of proclamation attached23).
He then requested me to see if our Government could not offer some further public condemnation of bombing non-combatants from the air, such as the King insists the Germans are doing. I thanked him and said that I would give the matter attention.
I inquired as to how long the Germans must have been engaged in preparations for the invasion of Norway, to which he replied that they must have been engaged for months and months; that their invasion must have commenced at least forty-eight hours before the British and French sowed mines on the northern and northwest coasts of Norway.
- Not reprinted.↩