352.1121/3a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Portugal (Caldwell)
25. For Consul George M. Graves:73 Several persons in the Vigo district having some claim to American citizenship have been arrested by the insurgent authorities for alleged political activity. As soon as possible following your arrival in Vigo we desire you to submit a full telegraphic report on each of these cases in order that the Department may determine what action you should be instructed to take. We have been unable to reach a definite decision up to the present as to whether these persons are American citizens. The Consulate at Vigo did not report these cases immediately by telegraph and when reports were submitted they were in insufficient detail.
In considering these cases you will, of course, bear in mind that ordinarily an American citizen does not definitely forfeit his claim to American citizenship unless he becomes naturalized in a foreign state or takes an oath of allegiance to a foreign government. Because of the disturbed conditions in Spain, the fact that Vigo is under martial [Page 747] law, and the curtailment of the usual legal safeguards to protect individual rights, we are apprehensive that persons who may have a valid claim to American citizenship may be dealt with summarily unless we indicate to the local officials our earnest desire to obtain a fair and impartial trial for them.
We feel that we have a right to insist that American nationals who may be arrested and accused of committing offenses in Spain have fair and impartial trials and that the authorities in control will, if our position is tactfully presented to them, promptly recognize the desirability of this from their own point of view. The local authorities would undoubtedly not desire to arouse public opinion in the United States against them by any precipitate action against an American national.
You will realize that it will be necessary for you to use the greatest tact and discretion in dealing with the authorities in connection with these cases.
- Assigned as Consul at Vigo October 21, 1936.↩