462.11L5232/174
Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State (Castle)
The German Ambassador41 came to the Department in a high state of excitement to discuss Mr. Bonynge’s42 motion for a retrial of the [Page 323] Black Tom case. He had hoped to see Mr. Cotton,43 with whom he had talked previously. He said that he had repeatedly warned Mr. Cotton that Mr. Bonynge would introduce a motion very shortly and had urged him to ask at least to see the wording of this motion, since he felt that Mr. Bonynge was not acting as a private lawyer, but as the agent of the Government of the United States. He said that Mr. Cotton had refused to do this because the Department had nothing to do with the whole business, but added that Mr. Cotton had said he would send for Mr. Roland Boyden44 to come to Washington immediately so that the whole question could be settled. The part of the motion which troubled him was the claim that the case had not been conducted in a legal manner in that the Umpire had taken part in the discussion. The Ambassador said he did not see how it is possible for the United States agent, considering the fact that the American representative on the Commission had made no protest and that the Umpire, who was an American, had accepted the situation, could, in behalf of the American Government, make a claim that all the 6,000 claims, with the exception of two, had been illegally conducted. He said that he felt it essential that Mr. Boyden should come promptly to Washington, in order that at least this part of Mr. Bonynge’s notice should be decided immediately. The reason for this is because that it opens the way to a retrial of all but two of the 6,000 cases and applications for retrial have already begun to pour in. If the Commission will promptly decide, these applications for retrial will stop or if they come in can be refused immediately, should the Commission decide that the procedure has been legal. I quite see his point in this, since many applications are already coming to the Department.
I told the Ambassador that, of course, this was a matter I had not handled personally although I had been interested in it and that I would take it up promptly with the Secretary.
(I cannot find from Mr. Cotton’s office whether he communicated with Mr. Boyden or not. The suggestion would be that he had not. If not, it seems to me that the Department should make the suggestion that the sooner this matter is settled, the better.)