862.015311/4
Memorandum by the Secretary of State
During his call the German Ambassador40 stated that he was obliged to make a complaint and to request a report back to him on the matter from this Government. He then handed me a news clipping41 about a proposed address by the German Consul General at New York to the members of the German American singing societies at Newark, New Jersey, and said he desired to deny the statement in the first paragraph of the news clipping to the effect that the German Consul General had ordered that the Swastika flag be flown at the meeting of the singing societies. The Ambassador said that the German Consul General merely sent word he could not attend and address the meeting unless as a matter of courtesy to the German Government the German flag should be flown. The Ambassador very earnestly insisted that the municipal officials of Newark had been guilty of an [Page 483] outright affront to the head of the German Government and to the Government itself by refusing to permit the German flag to be flown on this occasion. He said that he would earnestly request and expect to hear from the State Department relative to what it had done about the matter.
I expressed regret that the Ambassador or his Government had been disturbed about any undesirable occurrence in this country, and added that of course we had every type of citizen on the planet located in the New York City area, where every language was spoken and every sort of idea or imaginary idea attained and that of course it was most difficult for us to deal with them. I also stated that almost every day somebody came into my office with an earnest remonstrance about religious mistreatment in Mexico or racial mistreatment of Jews in Germany, or some other kind of unsatisfactory proceedings or occurrences in this, that or the other country.