695.001/6–151
The Ambassador in Sweden (Butterworth) to the Secretary of State
No. 1218
Subject: Soviet Peace Offer Reportedly Made Through Sweden.
On May 24 the Swedish press gave front-page prominence to a TT wire service story from New York concerning a Soviet peace offer which reportedly had been made earlier in May through the Swedish Foreign Office. According to this story, Mr. Sven Grafström (Sweden’s UN delegate and member of Good Offices Committee) stated that his Foreign Office, through a private intermediary, had been in touch with some unidentified Soviet official who had said that the Soviet Union might be willing to discuss peace in Korea on the basis of a status quo ante bellum. It was later reported that Mr. Grafström had identified the intermediary as a naturalized Swedish citizen. The Foreign Office has declined any public comment on this matter.
Mr. Sverker Aström, Chief of the Coordination Bureau of the Swedish Foreign Office has pointed out in confidence that, having seen the telegram to Mr. Grafström concerning the “peace feeler”, he could vouchsafe that the contents of the telegram were precisely as reported in the press except that he knew of no basis for identifying the intermediary as a naturalized Swedish citizen. He said that the cable had been drafted by the Foreign Minister (Mr. Unden) and that the source and intermediary in this peace offer were known only to the Foreign Minister and possibly to the Prime Minister.1 Mr. Åström added that he understood that the Foreign Minister had hesitated to report this peace offer to Mr. Grafström, for he recognized that it was nebulous and probably unfounded. He finally felt compelled to do so on the remote chance that it had substance. Mr. Åström suggested that the Foreign Minister has been highly embarrassed by the leakage of this peace offer to the press.2
Second Secretary of Embassy