File No. 704.6200/79
The Department of State to the Swiss Legation
Memorandum
At various times the Department of State has requested the Swiss Minister, representing German interests in the United States, to be so good as to ascertain from the German Government what disposition should be made of German interests in certain places, where before the severance of relations between the United States and Germany they were entrusted to American consular officers. Through the good offices of the Swiss Legation it has been made possible in most cases to give appropriate instruction to the American representatives, but information is still lacking concerning the transference of German interests in the following places: Harbin, Barbados, Martinique, Trinidad, Apia, Tahiti, British Guiana, Madagascar, Mombasa, Kingston, and Valetta.
[Page 628]The Department of State, therefore, must again have recourse to the kindness of the Swiss Legation and ask that the matter be brought to the attention of the German Government by telegraph with the request that the German Government immediately give notice of its desires in the premises. This Government can assume no responsibility in the care of German interests and property since February 3, 1917.