740.00114 European War 1939/1935: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in the Soviet Union (Thurston)
1309. Your 1983, November 27, noon, and 2065, December 16, 2 p.m. Department would like to have you consider the feasibility of replying to the Molotov note reverting to the discussions which you have had with Vyshinski and the formal communications which you [Page 1021] have exchanged with the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs regarding the possibility of application by the Soviet Government of the terms or the principles of the Geneva Prisoner of War Convention. Your note might follow the lines of the following message which is the Department’s 463, December 10, 10 p.m. to the Legation at Stockholm:
“If the opportunity should present itself you might point out to Madame Kollontay64 that the provisions of the Fourth Hague Convention which apply to prisoners of war are of much more restricted scope than those of the Geneva Convention and that in the opinion of the Department an important difference between the regimes provided under the two conventions lies in the provision of the Geneva Convention which makes obligatory on captor state to permit the inspection by the protecting power of the camps where the prisoners are held. The effect of this inspection is to permit the belligerent from whose forces the prisoners are taken to receive unbiased and trustworthy reports of the actual conditions in the camps thereby obviating unnecessary irritation over possibly groundless reports which are frequently circulated in time of war and decreasing the danger that the prisoners may needlessly be made to suffer retaliatory treatment. The inspection of camps, furthermore, affords the officers actually in charge of prisoners an opportunity to discuss with the inspectors minor points of difference, the settlement of which may mean much to the comfort of the prisoners and may obviate what might otherwise become later justifiable grounds for complaint. The inspections which are now carried on by the representatives of the protecting powers and of the International Red Cross Committee in the prisoner of war camps in Germany, Italy and British territory have demonstrated the wisdom and efficacy of such inspections, and the Department does not regard it as likely that any regime for Soviet prisoners in Germany and for German prisoners in the Soviet Union will be satisfactory in operation if provision is not made for inspection of the camps, provision for which is, as stated, lacking in the Hague Convention upon which the Soviet Government evidently hopes to base its demand of the Germans for the humanitarian treatment of its nationals.
Department hopes therefore that the Soviet Government will find it possible at an early date to announce adherence to the Geneva Prisoner of War Convention or its willingness reciprocally to apply an analogous regime.”
With reference to your 2064, December 16, 2 p.m., the Department’s attitude has not in the least changed by reason of German-American hostilities. This Government intends to apply the Geneva Prisoner of War and Red Cross Conventions, both of July 27, 1929, to all prisoners of war that it may take and, in so far as the provisions of the Prisoner of War Convention are adaptable, to any enemy aliens that may be interned by this Government.
[Page 1022]This intention applies even to Japan who although a signatory of the Prisoner of War Convention is understood not to have ratified it. The Department’s intention is based on the assumption that Japan and the other belligerents concerned will reciprocate.
The Department has never wavered from its firm belief that the welfare of prisoners on all sides can best be safeguarded by the reciprocal application of the provisions of the Geneva Prisoner of War Convention to all prisoners. Steps are already well under way here fully to implement the provisions of that Convention, including the privilege and duty of periodic inspections by representatives of the protecting powers.
The Department hopes that a knowledge of the position it is taking may make it easier for those similarly disposed in the Soviet Union to work for and obtain the application of similar safeguards as between the Soviet Union and the opposing belligerents.
- Alexandra Mikhailovna Kollontay, Minister of the Soviet Union in Sweden.↩