121.5762/3
The Ambassador in Germany ( Schurman ) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 3.]
Sir: I have the honor to report that, in compliance with the Department’s instruction No. 3821 of April 21, 1925,77 I informed the Foreign Office that certain agents of the Customs Division of the United States Treasury had been attached to the Embassy and requested recognition of them in their respective capacities by the German Government.
The Embassy is now in receipt of a Foreign Office Note Verbale, No. Ill A 1977, of the seventeenth instant in reply, a copy and translation of which are transmitted herewith,78 in which the Foreign Office states that the German Government is not in a position to accord the recognition requested, since, in the opinion of the Foreign Office, the duties which the “contemplated American officials” are to perform in Germany are not duties which should, according to international regulations or international usage, be performed by officials of a diplomatic career. The Foreign Office adds that for this reason, the German Government has misgivings of a fundamental nature against having officials who have to perform the contemplated duties attached to a diplomatic mission in Berlin.
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I have [etc.]