500.C115/1443: Telegram
The Consul General at Geneva (Tittmann) to the Secretary of State
[Received 5 p.m.]
163. Gallois, in charge of ILO here, informs me that in reply to Winant’s notification of the provisional transfer of a part of the personnel of the ILO to McGill University at Montreal the French Government expressed reservations concerning the partial transfer of the International Labor Office to a belligerent country and requested that the officials of French nationality be instructed to return to Geneva. Gallois states that no ILO French officials are yet in Montreal but that some are waiting passage at Lisbon. He intimated that he hoped to be able to prevail on the French Government to reconsider its position and allow them to proceed.
The Swiss Government also expressed reservations concerning transfer to a belligerent country but did not request that its nationals be recalled.33
- By telegram No. 123, September 27, 5 p.m., the Department instructed the Consulate at Geneva to arrange to have the U. S. Labor Commissioner’s office closed November 1 (500.C115/1448a).↩