124.84/100: Telegram

The Acting Secretary of State to the Minister Resident in Ethiopia ( Engert )

270. Your 403, June 7, 1 p.m. Department approves of attitude which you adopted in your conversation with Marshal Graziani and, inasmuch as the question raised in your 399, June 6, 3 p.m., now seems to have been satisfactorily adjusted there would appear to be no need for specific instructions. For your general guidance, however, I make the following comments and suggestions:

Since your primary function is to protect American interests in Ethiopia it is of course desirable for you to maintain such friendly informal relations with the Italian authorities as will accomplish that purpose. Accordingly the Department is not inclined to attach undue importance to questions of procedure such as the failure of the Italian authorities to address chiefs of mission without giving them their titles.

In this general connection it may be observed that American consular officers in Manchukuo generally refrain from using the titles of local officials in addressing them. The Department has suggested to consular officers in Manchukuo that it would be desirable to avoid formal communication and endeavor to transact business on a personal and/or informal basis.53

The Department would be interested in receiving information as to the form followed by the diplomatic corps in addressing Marshals Badoglio and Graziani, particularly whether the title Governor General, Viceroy is used.

Phillips
  1. See telegram No. 189, December 20, 1932, 1 p.m., to the Ambassador in Japan, Foreign Relations, 1932, vol. iv, p. 445.