File No. 763.72115/3362
The Secretary of State to the Swedish Minister ( Ekengren)
The Secretary of State presents his compliments to the Minister of Sweden, in charge of Austro-Hungarian interests in the United States, and has the honor to acknowledge the receipt of his memorandum of July 5 [3], 1918, submitting an extract of a cablegram received from the Foreign Office in Stockholm stating that the Austro-Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has noticed an increase in the internment of Austrian and Hungarian subjects in the United States, and desires to notify the American Government that should such internment of Austrian and Hungarian subjects, without valid cause (as seems to have been the case with Messrs. Kunwald and Pohl) continue, such a proceeding could not but have a corresponding effect on the treatment of American citizens in Austria-Hungary.
In reply the Secretary of State informs the Minister of Sweden that Austrian and Hungarian nationals have not, at any time, been interned by the Government of the United States without good cause. No change in this policy has taken place, or will take place in the future.
Relative to the internment of Mr. Kunwald, a careful consideration of the facts led this Government to consider that his internment was fully justified, and his internment was consequently ordered.
Several men by the name of Pohl have been interned and it is not possible to identify the Mr. Pohl to whom reference is had by the Austro-Hungarian Government.