CAB80-13 — Page 45

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ANNEX II.

Notification to Neutral Governments.

Indiscriminate attacks by German forces against

neutral shipping in the North Sea and in particular against vessels desiring to enter or leave the Baltic has, as the

Swedish

Finnish

Estonian Government will be aware, resulted in the Latvian

total Lithuanian

exclusion of innocent neutral shipping from the North Sea area. In these circumstances His Majesty's Government feel themselves constrained to remove the restrictions which they have hitherto placed upon the action of their own armed forces in this area, since it is clear that vessels found there can only be engaged in enemy military operations. British forces have accordingly been instructed to attack at sight all vessels within the Eastern portion of the North Sea and Kattegat area bounded by the following limits:-

2.

ல்

(a) the parallel of 66° North.

(b) the longitude of 0°09' West and the eastern edge of the area dangerous from mines, established in Notice to Marines No. 2931 of 30.12.39, and the longti tule of 2°31' East.

(c) the latitude of Ostend.

Should the Swedish Government by any chance desire

Finnish Estonian Latvian Lithuanian

that one of its vessels should attempt to enter or leave the Baltic, special arrangements will be made by His Majesty's Government to ensure its immunity from attack by British forces and for this purpose any vessel intending to enter the Baltic should request routeing instructions from the Naval Control Service Officer at Kirkwall, giving at least three days' notice. Any vessel intending to leave the Baltic should request routeing instructions from His Majesty's Consuls at Stockholm giving at least four days' notice.

Helsingfors Tallinn Riga Kovno

330

In making the above communication you should

emphasise that this is in fact a formality since in practice no neutral vessels have attempted to enter or leave the Baltic since the invasion of Norway, with the exception of one Swedish vessel the S.S. BOTHNIA which was machine-gunned and captured by the Germans.

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