462.11L5232/780½
Memorandum by the Legal Adviser (Hackworth)
Dr. Hans Thomsen, Counselor of the German Embassy, called this morning by appointment and said that he was instructed by the Ambassador to say that Dr. Markau is in nowise authorized by the German Government to discuss with officials of this Government any matter pertaining to the relations between the two Governments. He asked that I bring this to the attention of the Acting Secretary and others in the Department with whom Dr. Markau had had conversations, mentioning in particular Mr. Schoenfeld.94 I told him that Dr. Markau had called at the Department several times and on each occasion we had said that we could not undertake to enter into a discussion of matters between the two Governments unless they were presented through official channels, that is to say, through the American Embassy in Berlin or the German Embassy here. He said that the Embassy understood that to be our position and he merely wanted to make it clear that Dr. Markau was not authorized to speak on any of these subjects and particularly on matters involving large amounts of money. I observed that on the occasion of his last call Dr. Markau indicated that the sabotage claims would soon be settled, to which Dr. Thomsen replied that Dr. Markau was not authorized to speak even on this subject.
I told Dr. Thomsen that I would make a memorandum of our conversation and bring it to the attention of the Acting Secretary and the Division of Western European Affairs.
- Rudolf E. Schoenfeld of the Division of Western European Affairs.↩