Colonel House to Woodrow Wilson

In talking with Vance McCormick today he told me that his board were about to come to a decision upon embargoes particularly with Sweden and Norway.

I advised him to do nothing until he had seen you, since it was a matter of such importance that it might mean bringing into the war all of Scandinavia and possibly against the Allies.

I suppose you have read the confidential memorandum prepared by the British War Council and left with you by Lord Reading. No one knows of this in American outside of you, Lord Reading, Wiseman and myself, therefore the English, French and Italians with whom McCormick's board have reached an agreement concerning embargoes, do not know the real situation.

From that memorandum, it would seem that it would be a bad thing for the Allies for any of the nearby neutrals to get into the war, either for or against the Allies and for the reasons expressed therein.