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Show CEOEI SEEKS TO PALLIATE OFFENSE Transmission of Ger-t Ger-t man Messages Slopped and Berlin Government Govern-ment Asked for Explanation Ex-planation of the Abuse of Privilege Which Resulted Re-sulted in Exposure, GREAT BRITAIN IS INDIGNANT Swedish Envoy Leaves London, Ostensibly on Vacation ; Von Eck-hardt Eck-hardt Denies Everything Every-thing in Connection With Employment of Folke Cronholm. ' STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Sept. 15. Sweden realizes tho seriousness of tho situation created by the recent disclosures disclo-sures at Washington regarding tho transmission of German dispatches, nml expects to take all steps possible to put mutters right, Foreign Minister Lind-man Lind-man told the Associated Press during an informal talk. AH transmission of Gorman dispatches had been stopped, ho said, and Germany had been asked for an explanation of the abuse of the privilego formerly extended. landman's Excuses. In the course of his discussion of the affair with the correspondent, AdmirnI Li oilman brought out tho following points: First. That the Swedish government wns not, as alleged in certain quarters, taking tho affair lightly, but on the con- t rary realized fully the serious aspect of: the situation and intended to do everything every-thing possiblo to settle tho problem. Second. That transmission of dispatches dis-patches on behalf of Germany had been stopped absolutely from the mo ment vh -n the iiicloiins were brought ; tu the foreign rn i n itj r m attention, and, would under no r i r-u rn -ta w s he re- MJIl''d. ; Third. TliLt h;t'l the Swedish gov.wi- 1 men t h ;id the slih test id-a or t lie na- : t u re i,f tin: d ji;itidi.-H wiiii'h the Ger- ; nut!) government, was transmitting, the j meages uould never have been trans- j mi Med. ; Fourth. That trong representations i had been addnsn?4 to the German government gov-ernment on the abus madti of this! practice, accompanied by a rqnet tor i explanaiinn, to which, however, no reply i iiad vet been received. , I Admiral Lindrnan, during the entire ! conversation, neemed imbued with the desire to see the situation cleared up fully and completely on a basis satisiac- J torv to tin? 1'nited States and Sweden and in a way to permit the continuance of the most friendly, cordial relations , with the American government and ! people. - I "To begin with," said the foreign j minister in the course of the eonversa- I tion, "t want to emphasize the tact that wo are not taking this matter eas- I ily. Wc deplore most sincerely that a practice which was exercised in absolutely abso-lutely good faith has been gravely abused, and we arc determined that the condition which led to this result shall be remedied. ''As soon as was informed of Secretary Sec-retary Lansing's statement I immediately imme-diately gave orders to cease this prac-tice. prac-tice. This would have been done earlier, ear-lier, as a matter of course, had my attention at-tention been called to the undesirabil-ity undesirabil-ity of the practice. Pleads Ignorance. "A word from Mr. Morris (the American Amer-ican minister) or tho British minister would have sufficed. But as it was, 1 hail no idea that the practice was open to objection until the revelatiuns launched in Washington." The foreign minister has as yet been unablo to explain the exact circumstances circum-stances under which the practice of transmitting dispatches in code for Germany Ger-many hitd come into being, as it was an inheritance from the administration of his prodecessor. He had ordered a rigid investigation within his department depart-ment as to the origin of tho system, he said. " am as yet," he continued, "unable "un-able to say anything about the result of this investigation, but should like to have you point out emphatically that no man belonging to this country having knowledge of tho contents of Count Luxburg 's telegrams would have consented to transmit them. "This country wishes to maintaim.a perfectly neutral attitude and has the strongest determination to remain perfectly per-fectly neutral. No blame can be thrown upon us for having transmitted such telegrams, it cannot be for lack of good faith and sincere desire to preserve neutrality." neu-trality." Diplomatic, representatives of en tente governments here up to yesterday had displayed only natural curiosity as to the Swedish government's view "of tho situation brought about by the disclosures dis-closures from Washington regarding cable dispatches sent by the German minister to Argentine through the Swedish Swed-ish legation. From this attitude of waiting one of action developed when the French minister. K. Thiebaut, called upon Foreign Minister Limlman with a formal request for an explanation of the incident on behalf of his government. govern-ment. The other representatives of the entento nations are expected to follow Minister Thiebaut s initiative.. The American, British, French and Russian ministers held a meeting yesterday, at which tho situation was thoroughly can vassed. .. 1 . |