Axel & The Axis

The U.S. carried economic warfare direct to Europe last week, barred from further trade with the U.S. 1,800 Axis-owned or dominated firms and individuals in Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey.

The new additions to the growing U.S. black list (now 5,000 names long) were almost identical with Britain's European list.

First name on the new U.S. list, but missing from Britain's, was that of blue-eyed Axel Leonard Wenner-Gren, famed Swedish industrialist. The State Department black-listed him personally, but not his companies.

Wealthiest Swede since Kreuger, Axel Wenner-Gren is a mysterious globetrotter, one of the last of the international capitalists. He built his fortune on wood pulp, aviation, munitions (Bofors), vacuum cleaners and refrigerators (Servel, Inc.). Since 1939 he has lived on Hog Island (near Nassau) on a magnificent estate called Shangri-La. He is an intimate of the Duke of Windsor. Two months ago he left Peru, where he had sponsored an archeological expedition, and arrived in Mexico, where he said he intended to "engage in economic activities."

Axel Wenner-Gren's most ambiguous public gesture was in February 1940, when at the cabled request of Hermann Goering he rushed to Berlin, attempted to mediate a Russo-Finnish peace. But his associates indignantly declare: ". . . by no stretch of the imagination [is he] an Axis sympathizer." Last March he said: "... I shall always prefer peace to war so long as there is reasonable basis for hoping for peace, but never at a sacrifice of the principles of freedom and progressive democracy."

In 1940 Axel Wenner-Gren claimed to control Servel, Inc., U.S. maker of Electrolux products, but last week the company said he had had no voice in its policies or management since 1937, held no stock in his own name.

Other new blacklistees:

> Most of Europe's fancy automakers (Lancia, Fiat, Hispano-Suiza, Mercedes-Benz).

> Sweden's Agfa Foto and Ufafilm companies.

> Four Swiss aluminum companies.

> Ala Littoria (Italian parent of Lati air line from Rome to Rio de Janeiro).

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