811.2222 (1940)/38
The Spanish Ambassador ( Cárdenas ) to the Secretary of State
Mr. Secretary: My attention has been called to the fact that in the instructions published in the calls made in connection with the enrollment in the register that is to take place on Wednesday the 16th instant for the “Selective Service” no exception has been made for the benefit of the citizens of those countries which, like Spain, have signed treaties in which their citizens are exempted from military service. This causes me to assume that the registration mentioned does not imply a call to render service in the Army, but nevertheless I take the liberty, for the proper purposes, of recalling to Your Excellency Article 5 of the Treaty of Friendship that governs the relations between our countries,5 the text of which is as follows:
“The citizens or subjects of each of the High Contracting Parties shall be exempt in the territories of the other from all compulsory [Page 560] military service, by land or sea, and from all pecuniary contributions in lieu of such, as well as from all obligatory official functions whatsoever…”
Hence I request Your Excellency that, in accordance with the provisions of the clause mentioned above, the proper instructions be given to the competent American authorities in order that Spanish citizens may not be called into military service.
I avail myself [etc.]
- Signed July 3, 1902, Foreign Relations, 1903, p. 721.↩