365.115/5: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in Italy ( Reed )
114. Embassy’s telegram No. 335, November 16, 11 a.m. In as much as 1 month has already elapsed without reply to your representations to the Foreign Office in behalf of Blattner, we feel that you should again approach the appropriate authorities with a view to obtaining early action. In so doing, you should not fail to make clear that it is not the question of most-favored-nation treatment that concerns this Government in the present instance, since we take it for granted that this will continue to be accorded to American nationals in Italy, but rather the Italian Government’s action in discriminating between different classes of American nationals on the basis of race or creed. As set forth in the Department’s telegram No. 110 of November 8, 5 p.m., this Government emphatically declines to recognize the right of a foreign nation to make such discrimination.
Please follow this case closely and report developments by cable.