390.1115A/144: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Japan (Grew)
428. 1. For the purpose of making loans to American citizens for their transportation expenses on any American vessel in withdrawing to the United States, the following allotments are granted: To the Embassy at Tokyo, 10,000 dollars, to the Embassy at Peiping 25,000 dollars, and to the Consulate General at Hong Kong, 5,000 dollars. The Embassies at Tokyo and Peiping may reallot sums from their allotments as may be necessary to offices under their jurisdiction. Each office receiving funds and advancing loans should render separate accounts, [Page 947] draw separate drafts. Offices in Japan charge authorization number 75, 1941. Offices in China charge authorization number 76, 1941. Hong Kong charge authorization number 77, 1941. Should the amounts hereby allotted prove insufficient, the Embassies at Tokyo and Peiping and the Consulate General at Hong Kong may submit requests for specified additional amounts together with indication number of Americans for whom the additional funds are desired.
2. These funds are granted by the Department from the limited emergency funds at its disposal, which funds are already obligated to a considerable extent by the guarantee against financial loss which the Department has been obliged to give in connection with the dispatch of the three additional ships now proceeding to the Far East for the withdrawal of Americans. Every care must be exercised to keep the monies advanced from these allotments to the lowest possible minimum, with thorough investigation being made in each case to determine funds which applicants may possess or be able to obtain. Those who can pay part of their transportation will, of course, be required to do so. Loans for partial or complete cost of transportation should cover only lowest price accommodations available.
3. Loans are only to be made for personal transportation, including transportation to port of embarkation, against promissory notes in accordance with Paragraphs 20 to 22 of the memorandum accompanying the Department’s confidential instruction of March 21, 1939.7
4. Loans may be granted only to bona fide Americans, whose citizenship is fully established by passport or by registration. Loans may include transportation expenses for accompanying alien spouses and unmarried minor children provided such alien relatives are properly documented for admission into the United States after having been found admissible under the immigration laws. In the latter connection attention is particularly invited to the public charge provisions of the immigration laws. Funds provided for loans are not to be used in facilitating the admission into the United States of aliens who may become objects of public charity even though they be members of the immediate families of American citizens.
5. Persons resting under unrebutted presumption of expatriation are not entitled to protection or to loans and passports may not be issued under Rule (g) pending proof of completion of arrangements for return to the United States for permanent residence, including transportation arrangements for which loans are not to be advanced. Persons who have the nationality of the United States and of the country of their residence and who are not bearers of American passports [Page 948] or currently registered should file applications for registration which should be forwarded to Washington for usual investigation prior to any other action including extension of loans. American citizens of alien extraction who are bound by family ties to aliens ineligible to citizenship or otherwise inadmissible under the immigration laws may not properly be assisted in returning to the United States under circumstances which would constitute virtual desertion of their family obligations. American citizens of alien extraction who are occupationally engaged or politically involved in activities which are considered to be contrary to the interests of the United States may not be considered as possessing any claim upon the Government of the United States for financial or other assistance. It is believed that the same general principles should apply in regard to most questions involving American citizens of alien extraction which may arise in connection with other phases of the general problem of assisting Americans to return to the United States.
6. Loans are not authorized for Philippine citizens who must look to the Commonwealth Government for such financial assistance as they may need.
It is definitely not an obligation nor is it the policy of the Government to provide transportation at its expense for Americans abroad to return to the United States. These are basic principles which the Government has followed for many years in extending assistance to Americans abroad. They are to be borne in mind in making disbursements of the funds herein allotted by the Department for loans. Persons who have funds or who can obtain them from relatives, friends or employers, are expected to provide their own transportation expenses and should be refused loans. Those who are in the service of business, or other organizations of any kind, and who may apply for loans, should be directed to the responsible heads of their organizations for funds for transportation expenses.
The foregoing should be repeated by the Embassy at Tokyo to the officers in Japanese territory and by the Embassy at Peiping to officers in China (including Manchuria) and Hong Kong.
Sent to Tokyo via Shanghai. Repeated to Peiping and Chungking.
- Printed in Foreign Relations, 1939, Vol. i, in section I under “Repatriation of Americans and Others From Belligerent Countries.”↩