384.11/35

The Secretary of the International Missionary Council ( Warnshuis ) to the Chief of the Division of Near Eastern Affairs ( Murray )
[Extract]

My Dear Mr. Murray:

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

There is one general question about which I should like to get your information. You may remember that I raised this question with you in conversation. In your previous letters you have requested the missionary boards to instruct all of the American missionaries to leave Ethiopia. The question that I want to raise concerns the position of medical missionaries. Would it be possible to recognize that medical missionaries might be an exception in such a time as this. Would there be any objection on the part of the American Government toward any American medical men or women, whether missionary or not, accepting service under the Ethiopian Red Cross; assuming that the Ethiopian Red Cross is recognized under the International Red Cross Convention, is there any objection to American aid being given to the Ethiopian Red Cross? Again, would there be any objection to the Americans organizing a Red Cross unit to go to Ethiopia in the event of war being declared? Would American nurses, unmarried, [Page 885] be in any different position from that of physicians and would there be any objection against their accepting service in Ethiopia?

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Yours faithfully,

A. L. Warnshuis