811.2222 (1940)/169
The Mexican Ambassador (Castillo Nájera) to the Secretary of State
Mr. Secretary: I have duly received Your Excellency’s note dated March 5, 1941, in which you were good enough to transmit to me the opinion of the agency of the United States concerned, to which the Department of State through the kind intermediary of Your Excellency referred the cases of Messrs. Juan Ramírez and Armando Bernal, [Page 570] [and desire]13 to state that the above-mentioned opinion cannot be accepted by this Embassy as a legal decision in accordance with the principles of International Law, for the reasons which in this and in other similar cases I have already taken the liberty to set forth to Your Excellency, especially in the memorandum which was presented on October 2, 1940 for the consideration of the Legal Adviser of your Department, Mr. Green H. Hackworth, by my express instructions.
I am pleased to observe, however, that Your Excellency, in the note to which I have the honor to refer, has the kindness to inform me that “the general question of the exception of foreign declarers who are subject to military service in accordance with the ‘Selective Training and Service Act of 1940’ providing for such service is receiving the consideration of the interested Departments[”] of Your Excellency’s Government, and I have the hope that this study will result in the avoidance, in the future as well as in the cases of Juan Ramírez and Armando Bernal, of the pursuance of any action prejudicial to their rights as nationals of my country, and that there may be finally settled in a favorable manner a question which might be of consequence in view of the large number of cases which have occurred to date and which may also occur later.14
Please accept [etc.]