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308
SWEDISH NEUTRALITY [chap, xviii.
Allies and from now onwards I had the opportunity of
working in concert with Mr. Howard, and we
communicated to each other everything we heard. On the initiative
of the French and British Ministers their two
Governments, from the first days of the war, made a declaration
to the Swedish Government to the effect that the two
Powers guaranteed Sweden’s integrity and her complete
sovereignty on condition that she maintained strict
neutrality. When M. Thi6baud and Mr. Howard
transmitted this declaration to M. Wallenberg, the latter
thanked them warmly and added : " Ah! if only the
Russian Minister would bring me an identical
declaration, how it would facilitate my task at the King’s
Councils!" I had not waited for this allusion to take
the same step with regard to St. Petersburg as my
colleagues had taken in Paris and London, and I was
awaiting the answer somewhat anxiously; this answer
was delayed, and the activist agitation was again
becoming more acute in Stockholm, and all sorts of
alarming rumours were beginning to circulate. At last
I received the much-wished-for answer from M. Sazonoff:
"You are authorised to make a declaration identical
with that of the Allied Governments." However, next
morning another telegram from the Foreigh Office
begged me to defer the declaration a little. The same
day my two colleagues came to warn me that the absence
of the Russian declaration was greatly agitating the
Swedish Government and furnishing arguments to
the partisans of the German alliance. " I felt sure of it,
and I have already sent an earnest telegram to St.
Petersburg to show the absolute necessity and urgency
for our declaration."
I realised that it was a decisive moment and that
all further delay might have disagreeable consequences.
Fortunately, that night a telegram arrived from the
Foreign Office authorising me afresh to make the
declaration. For fear of a new counter-order I hastened
the first thing in the morning, to beg for an interview
with M. Wallenberg,and I handed him the communication
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