File No. 711.622/12

President Wilson to the Secretary of State

My Dear Mr. Secretary: I am sorry not to have sent you sooner an answer to the very important question stated in the enclosed letter.1 The fact of the matter is that it has given me not a little trouble to arrive at a right solution of the quandary, if, indeed, I have arrived at such a solution.

It is clear to me, as it is to you, that we cannot arbitrarily ignore this treaty. It was made for war, not for peace,—for just such relations between ourselves and Germany as have now arisen; and [Page 171] I do not feel that Germany’s playing fast and loose with the obligations of this treaty, as of all others, affords, for us who are proud to observe obligations and would like to set an example, a sufficient ground for repudiating our own promises under it.

At the same time, it is clear to me that the treaty cannot have had in its contemplation any subjects of Germany living in this country except those whose conduct and purpose were peaceable and consistent (so far as they were concerned) with the peace and security of the United States. It cannot have been intended to extend privileges to those who might from any reasonable point of view be thought to be plotting or intending mischief against us.

I should say, therefore, that it was our duty to allow all Germain citizens resident in this country the full nine months stipulated in which “to collect their debts and settle their affairs” and to permit them to “depart freely, carrying off all their effects without molestation or hindrance”; but that it was our privilege to discriminate amongst them just as we are discriminating amongst those alien enemies who remain in residence here, distinguishing and restraining those whom we have reason to believe to entertain purposes hostile or inimical to the United States. Such persons ought not to be permitted to leave our territory freely or to carry their effects into a neighbouring country where it is known that they will in all probability have a better opportunity to do us harm than they would have if they remained here. This line will be hard to draw, no doubt, but it will be as practicable to draw it amongst those leaving the country as amongst those who remain in it.

Faithfully yours,

W[oodrow] W[ilson]
  1. Supra.