702.6211/1545
The German Chargé (Thomsen) to the Secretary of State 43
Your Excellency: In your note of June 16th you have requested by order of the President of the United States that the German Reich remove from United States’ territory all German nationals in any wise connected with the German Library of Information in New York, the German Railway and Tourist Agencies and the Transocean News Service, and that each of these organizations and their affiliates shall be promptly closed. You have further requested that all consular officers, agents, clerks and employees thereof of German nationality shall be removed from American territory, and that the consular establishments likewise be promptly closed.
As the reason for this measure you have given that it had come to the knowledge of the Government of the United States that agencies of the German Reich, including German consular establishments were continuously engaged in activities wholly outside the scope of their legitimate duties and that these activities had been of an improper and unwarranted character. Their activities would give to the continued presence of these agencies and consular establishments a character which would be inimical to the welfare of the country.
On behalf of my government I reject as entirely arbitrary and unfounded the accusations raised against the German agencies and consular establishments. The measure of the Government of the United States constitutes a violation of the Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Consular Eights of 1923.44 Upon instruction of my Government I most vigorously protest against this procedure.
Accept [etc.]
- Handed to the Under Secretary of State on June 18.↩
- Signed at Washington December 8, 1923, Foreign Relations, 1923; vol. ii, p. 29.↩