File No. 763.72114/3759
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Switzerland (Stovall)
2280. Bequest Spanish Embassy at Berlin to bring the following note textually to the attention of the German Government.
The Government of the United States has been informed through a report by delegates of the Spanish Embassy at Berlin on the prison camp at Tuchel where American prisoners are detained, that the American prisoners were unable to take with them their clothing when they were transferred to this camp and that the leather boots of 18 of the prisoners were removed and shoes with wooden soles substituted. The Government of the United States is further informed that the American Red Cross–Central Committee for American Prisoners at Berne has sent to the camp at Tuchel 96 pairs of boots and that up to the present time only one boot has arrived. And furthermore, Spanish delegates who have visited the camp at Tuchel have reported that the commandant of that camp asserts that the boots were taken from the prisoners under orders of the Ministry of War.
In view of the fact that German authorities admit that this practice of despoiling American prisoners of their property is actually being carried out by orders of the German Government, the Government of the United States now most energetically protests against such deliberate violation of international practice and demands that these occurrences shall cease altogether and that the property already taken shall be immediately restored.