As is well known, this incident was fully disclosed only when, on his own initiative, Mr Prytz made his report known to the Swedish public in September I965, a quarter of a century after the event.1 The possible significance of this piece of evidence will of course not be discussed in this context. The episode has been cited only because it provides, in at least two respects, an appropriate starting point for a survey of recent Swedish research on the diplomatic aspects of contemporary history. In the first place, it brings up the question of the extent to which a small power's diplomatic source material may contain relevant information even on great issues in which it was not directly involved. This will of course largely depend on sheer chance, and on the abilities of individual diplomatic representatives; there are, however, some indications that a non-aligned position of the Swedish kind may often provide brighter prospects for comprehensive information than might be expected from a consideration of its power potential. Some recent diplomatic memoirs seem to bear this out,2 although we will know nothing for certain until we are given access to the archives. 1 The Times, 9 September I965. A complete account in Dagens Nyheter, 8 September I965. 2 Vilhelm Assarsson, I skuggan av Stalin (In the Shadow of Stalin: Moscow memoirs 1940-43), (Stockholm, I963); Erik Boheman, Pd vakt: Kabinettssekreterare under andra varldskriget (On Duty: Foreign Under-Secretary in World War II), (Stockholm, I964); Sven Allard, Ryskt utspel i Wien (Stockholm, I965); German transl. Diplomat in Wien: Erlebnisse, Begegnungen und Gedanken um den Osterreichischem Staatsvertrag (Cologne, 1965).