The Swedish ambassador Prytz

Björn Prytz, Swedish ambassador to Great Britain, 1938–47.

came over for lunch today. He is greatly concerned by prospects for the near future. The newly established Ministry of Economic Warfare, led by Leith-Ross, poses the matter of neutrality as follows: we guarantee you normal imports of the foreign products you need, as long as you undertake to trade with Germany without exceeding the usual norms. Applied to Sweden, this means that Britain guarantees normal imports of coal, so long as Sweden does not sell more iron ore than before to Germany (7–8 million tons annually, out of the total 11 million tons produced in Sweden). The Swedish government might be ready to go along with the British conditions, but what will Germany say? Moreover, Sweden is prepared to sell ore to Germany for cash only, but Germany does not have any cash. How will Germany react to the refusal to sell on credit? Will she regard it as a casus belli?

[Prytz forged close relations with Maisky. Beatrice Webb found him to be ‘a cold-blooded philosopher, secularist in his outlook on man’s relation to the universe’ who preferred a Swedish alliance with the Soviet Union rather than with Germany. His attractive young wife, she noted, was ‘a great admirer of Maisky and a warm friend of MADBme Maisky. When I showed her Lenin’s portrait, given me by the Ship’s Captain who took us to Russia, she observed that Maisky had the same expression as the great genius who created the Soviet Union.’

Webb, diary, 25 July 1940, pp. 6933–5.

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