Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1939, General, Volume I

860F.48/55: Telegram

The Chargé in Germany (Geist) to the Secretary of State

Berlin, March 22, 1939—11 a.m.
[Received March 22—8:40 a.m.]

188. Department’s 51, March 17, 6 p.m. I saw Doctor Woermann at the Foreign Office and made urgent representations in the sense of the Department’s telegram above referred to. Doctor Woermann stated that the British Chargé d’Affaires had made a similar request with regard to persons holding visas for England and that he would take immediate measures to see that our wish was made known to the proper authorities in Praha.

I discussed at some length with Doctor Woermann the question of achieving orderly emigration from Germany of persons whose departure was urged by the German authorities. Doctor Woermann reiterated the position taken by Goering in his conversations with Rublee,⁹⁷ namely that the German Government desired to cooperate in achieving an orderly emigration from this country. I pointed out that if events in Czechoslovakia resulted in the driving of a large number of persons out of newly occupied territories, it would have a serious detrimental effect upon the arrangements now being made by certain other countries to facilitate orderly emigration from Germany. Doctor Woermann asserted that he would take the necessary measures to bring this observation to the attention of the authorities concerned.

Geist

[For the President’s proclamation of March 23, 1939, suspending the operation of the trade agreement with Czechoslovakia, see Department of State, Press Releases, March 25, 1939, page 241, or 53 Stat. 2530.]

97. George Rublee, Director of the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees; see telegram No. 58, January 21, 9 p.m., from the Chargé in Germany, printed in vol. ii , section entitled “Cooperation With the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees …”