765.84116/23

The Secretary of State to Mr. Kepler Hoyt

Sir: The receipt is acknowledged of your letter of January 3, 1936,11 in which you state that you have seen no notice of a protest by the United States Government against the bombing of an American [Page 41] (Seventh Day Adventist) hospital in Ethiopia by the Italians.12 You refer to the prompt protest made by the Swedish Government in connection with the bombing of a Swedish Red Cross station and inquire “is the American people to conclude from the above that its Government is less concerned for the rights of its nationals than is the Swedish Government?”

The hospital of the Seventh Day Adventist Mission which was damaged in the course of the bombardment of Dessie by Italian airplanes on December 6, 1935, was affiliated with the Ethiopian Red Cross and the protest made by that organization in connection with the bombing has been brought to the attention of the Italian authorities by the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva, Switzerland.

The operation in a belligerent country of Red Cross Societies or similar organizations of a neutral country is governed by the Red Cross Convention signed at Geneva on July 27, 1929,13 to which the United States, Italy and Ethiopia are parties. Article 11 of that Convention reads as follows:

“A recognized Society of a neutral country may only lend the services of its sanitary personnel and formations to a belligerent with the prior consent of its own Government and the authority of such belligerent.

“The belligerent who has accepted such assistance shall be required to notify the enemy before making any use thereof.”

While the Department understands that the Swedish Red Cross unit to which you refer was operating in Ethiopia with the approval of the Swedish Government in accordance with the treaty provision quoted, neither the Seventh Day Adventist Mission nor any other organization has been authorized by the Government of the United States to function in Ethiopia under that treaty provision. Moreover, the information in the Department’s possession does not definitely establish that the hospital at Dessie to which you refer is wholly an American organization, and inquiries are now being made to ascertain the extent of the American interest in the hospital.

It will be appreciated from the foregoing that there is neither necessity nor any clear basis for protest by the Government of the United States against the bombing to which you refer.

Very truly yours,

For the Secretary of State:
Wallace Murray

Chief, Division of Near Eastern Affairs
  1. Not printed.
  2. For previous correspondence on this subject see Foreign Relations, 1935, vol. i, pp. 876 ff.
  3. Ibid., 1929, vol. i, p. 317.