File No. 763.72114A/60
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Switzerland ( Stovall)
2101. Your 3583, June 6, 9 a.m. Bequest Spanish Embassy, Berlin, to inform German Government that Swiss Government has consented to intern in Switzerland such invalid American prisoners in Germany as may be eligible for internment in a neutral country by virtue of an informal agreement that may be entered into between the German and American Governments. Further state that Swiss. Government has consented to appoint a medical commission to visit invalid American prisoners in Germany and to pass on their eligibility for internment in a neutral country or repatriation. Urge that German Government allow such a commission to visit Germany at the earliest possible moment, and state that this Government will be glad at any time to have a similar commission of neutral inspectors visit invalid German prisoners of war in the United States with a view to their repatriation or internment in a neutral country. You may state that a proposed schedule of disabilities is being forwarded by mail and that in its essentials it conforms closely to [Page 81] the schedule of disabilities recently agreed to by the British and Bulgarian Governments.
Pending the conclusion of a more specific arrangement, ascertain whether German Government would consider the internment in Switzerland of such individual American prisoners as Hoyt Decker, Corpl. Edward Roberts, and Thomas McCarthy, whose cases would obviously come under any schedule of disabilities later agreed to. Add that this Government would consider favorably the internment in a neutral country of individual German prisoners in the United States who may be similarly incapacitated.