Office of the Chancellor, Christiansborg Palace, Denmark, Kingdom of 
Scandinavia, 27 August 1972

"Thank you very much for making the time to see me, Herr Kanzler. I 
realise this is a particularly busy time for you, with the Rigsdag 
elections pending and I am grateful for your forbearance."

"It is always an enormous pleasure to lay aside the burden of office for a 
moment and engage with the Ambassador of our great neighbour to the South. 
What may I do for you?"

"It is a matter of some delicacy. I regret to have to inform the Herr 
Kanzler that a number of our citizens appear to be in the custody of your 
Security Service and that repeated efforts by my Embassy staff to gain 
contact with them have been entirely unsuccessful. My Government is 
concerned at this and hopes that we, with our mutual sympathy, might seek 
some resolution to this issue without recourse to more formal action."

"Why, Ambassador, you amaze me. Were this indeed to be the case, that the 
Security Service had, in fact, detained persons claiming German 
nationality, we should of course have communicated with the Embassy at 
once. Alas, I am desolated to have to inform you that this is not the 
case. Our Security Service has, in fact, requested a number of individuals 
to make themselves available to assist in an ongoing investigation, but of 
that number, some are Scandinavian nationals, some of depressingly high 
status and the others make no claim whatsoever to protection from the 
German state - in my view, fortunately, as capital charges are likely to 
result from their detention red-handed in the pursuit of espionage and 
subversion. We are a minor Power and aware of our international position 
and, as you know, cleave strongly to our neutrality. One of the ways we do 
this is by taking a very firm line with any attempt to influence our 
society by covert means."

"We, from our side, of course, resolutely condemn any attempt to subvert 
our good friends to our North; however, I must insist, Herr Kanzler..."

"I am devastated to have to tell you, Ambassador, that I am required to 
reject your insistence. My regret knows no limit. I am aware that you are 
very busy and that your services are urgently required, no doubt to 
communicate with Berlin, so, unless there is anything else I might do for 
you...?"

"No, Herr Kanzler, I thank you again for your time and bid you farewall."

"Good day, Ambassador."

******************************

Regimental Headquarters, 1. Fremmedregiment, Vasalageren, Landskrona, 
Sweden, 28 August 1972

Oberst Jan-Magnus Johannssen, commanding officer of 1. Fremmedregiment* 
was not happy. He had been warned to stand by for a high level visit from 
the Ministry of War and was now sitting in his office, facing two well-, 
if anonymously-dressed civilians, who had just explained that they were 
stripping out his senior NCO cadre. Not only were they taking his 
Regimental Chief Sergeant, Stabssergent du Maurier and six of his nine 
Company Chief Sergeants, but also his Deputy Intelligence Officer, 
Stabsofficiant Mancini and his entire team, for "duties of a sensitive 
nature" - with no explanation and no discussion.

Adding insult to injury, they had also instructed him to produce a list of 
all members of his Regiment who held the Sports Badge in Gold, were 
qualified in airlanding using fallscreens and spoke at least one language 
other than Haerdansk** and French. Johanssen strongly suspected that he 
was about to lose at least a full battalion's worth of hardened 
long-service professionals to Military Intelligence*** and he was 
profoundly unimpressed.

* Fremmedregimentet - the Foreign Regiment. Formed 1942, composed 
primarily of Frenchmen wishing to engage in military service and not 
anxious to do so under the Boche. Long-service professionals, known for 
their indifference to German feelings.

** Haerdansk - Hybrid Danish/Swedish dialect, widely used as a military 
lingua franca inside the Scandinavian military, which includes native 
speakers of Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Estonian, Latvian, 
Lithuanian, German and French among its number.

*** Military Intelligence Service (den Militaere Efterretningstjeneste) - 
branch of the Scandinavian Great General Staff responsible for gathering 
of military intelligence abroad, security of military installations at 
home and for administration of the specialist Jaegerkorps.