File No. 763.72111/212
The Secretary of State to the German Ambassador (Bernstorff)
Washington, October 6, 1914.
My dear Mr. Ambassador: I have received your letter of the 23d ultimo, calling attention to certain facts relating to Mr. Riley E. Scott, an ex-Lieutenant of the United States Army, who, you state, has offered his services as aviator, familiar with the practice of dropping bombs from aeroplanes, to France or her allies. You state that Mr. Howard F. Wierum “personally saw the cable from Mr. Scott offering his services to France, and also the cable reply of the French War Office,” and suggest that the nature of the case is sufficiently unique and different from an enlistment of a mere ex-United States Army officer to call for special action by this Government. You request, therefore, an expression of opinion as to whether “the strict neutrality” of the United States Government would permit of its exercising any restraining or warning influence upon Mr. Scott’s plans.
[Page 563]Assuming that Mr. Scott is an ex-officer of the United States Army; that he is an expert at bomb-dropping from aircraft and has designed an efficient apparatus therefor; that he has tendered his services to France, cabling from the United States; that the French War Office has accepted his tender; and that he is about to sail for Europe with his apparatus in pursuance of his accepted tender, I beg to advise you that the Department is of the opinion that, while Mr. Scott may be acting contrary to the wishes of the President contained in his address to the American people enjoining neutrality, he is not offending against the neutrality laws of this country or the treaties on that subject between the United States and other powers. The Department understands that the circumstances of Mr. Scott’s case do not constitute an “enlistment or entry” as a soldier or as a marine or seaman in the service of a foreign state, in violation of the neutrality statutes of the United States. In this situation the Government would hardly feel authorized to take any steps on the facts stated to, and understood by, the Department, to prevent the contemplated action of Mr. Scott.
In this relation it may be pointed out that, as under the generally accepted principles of international law citizens or subjects of a neutral nation are not prohibited from entering the military service of a belligerent, it has been a common practice in the past for aliens to engage in foreign military service without compromising the neutrality of their government. For example, many aliens served in the United States Army during the Spanish War of 1898; and the same is true of the American Civil War, the distinguished foreigner, the Comte de Paris, serving in the Union Army. In earlier days, Baron von Steuben and General Lafayette served in the American armies during the War for Independence.
I am [etc.]