File No. 763.72111/259
The Austro-Hungarian Ambassador (Dumba) to the Secretary of State1
Manchester, Massachusetts, September 28, 1914.
[Received September 30.]
[Translation]
No. 17–X]
Excellency: As your excellency will most kindly see from the enclosed item from the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s issue of the 21st instant,2 the honorary Royal Servian Consul General Pupin has issued a call to all the Servian Sokols, in which he invites them to join the Servian Army as volunteers.
It being well known that there are very few Servian subjects in the United States and that the Sokols are almost exclusively composed of Servians from the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, Mr. Pupin’s action constitutes a plain violation of neutrality and is liable to criminal prosecution under the neutrality proclamation issued by the President at the beginning of the present war.
I have therefore the honor most respectfully to ask that your excellency will most kindly take such steps as may be deemed appropriate to prevent Servian volunteers of Austro-Hungarian origin from leaving the territory of the United States and to call Mr. Pupin to account for his recruiting.
Looking forward, with thanks, to your excellency’s favorable answer as to the action taken in the matter, I renew [etc.]