The Secretary of State to the German Ambassador (Bernstorff)
My Dear Mr. Ambassador: Since our conference last Wednesday in regard to the Von Igel affair I have been advised more fully as to the facts in the case, but this additional information has not changed my views.
The crimes with which Von Igel is charged are of so serious a nature, certain of them having been directed against this Government and liable to endanger its peace with other nations, that I feel convinced that your Government, even supposing it had the right under international law to interpose the plea of diplomatic immunity in his behalf, would not so interfere with the course of justice or permit its privileges to shield the perpetrator of such crimes from just punishment. To interpose the plea of diplomatic immunity for a person indicted for crimes of this nature, rather than crimes against private individuals, might arouse a suspicion that his Government was to some degree acquainted with the criminal acts.
In the case of Von Igel, however, I do not think that your excellency’s Government can legally claim for him diplomatic immunity since the nature of the crimes with which he is charged is so grave and since the crimes were committed before he was notified to the Department of State to be an attaché of your Embassy. Manifestly it would be contrary to the usage of nations and to the rules which govern their intercourse to permit diplomatic immunity to be thrown about a person in these circumstances in order to save him from the consequences of his act.
In accordance with this view this Government does not consider that the Imperial Government should ask for the release of Von Igel, but should permit justice to take its course.
In regard to the papers, which were found in the room in the New York office building at the time of Von Igel’s arrest and which were taken possession of by the Department of Justice, I am not at all convinced that they were improperly seized or held by that Department. Documents obtain an acquired immunity from the fact that among other things they are under official seal, that they are on Embassy premises, or that they are in the actual possession of a person entitled to diplomatic immunity. In this case none of the papers was under seal the room in which they were found was one rented by a private person for an advertising bureau or agency, and was not a part of the Embassy premises and they do not appear to have been in the actual possession of Van Igel, whose doubtful right to diplomatic immunity I have already touched upon.
While in the opinion of this Government it might legally retain the documents seized, at least temporarily, for use as evidence in the grave crimes committed, this Government, appreciating the [Page 811] embarrassment which it might cause your Government to employ its official papers for this purpose, is not disposed to insist strictly upon its rights. As a matter of comity and good will the seized documents will be submitted to you for inspection, and those which you declare to be part of the official correspondence of your Embassy will be delivered to you to be returned to the Embassy’s archives. The remaining papers will be returned to the Department of Justice.1
Assuring you of the desire of this Government to meet your wishes as far as possible in this matter and trusting that the course of procedure proposed will be acceptable to your excellency, I am
[etc.]
- These papers, the papers taken from Captain von Papen by the British authorities on his way back to Germany, and all other documents relating to cases concerning violations of American neutrality in which German officials were involved, are matters of record in the Department of Justice and the courts in which such cases were tried. A brief summary of this material was published in July 1918, by the Committee on Public Information, in its pamphlet No. 10 of the Red, White, and Blue Series entitled German Plots and Intrigues in, the United States during the Period of our Neutrality.↩