125.0062/299: Telegram
The Chargé in Germany (Morris) to the Secretary of State
[Received 9:45 p.m.]
2443. I was called to the Foreign Office at 6 o’clock this afternoon, German summer time, to speak with State Secretary Weizsaecker44a who handed to me a note in the first person signed by himself which reads in translation as follows:
“Mr. Chargé d’Affaires: On behalf of my Government I have the honor to inform you as follows:
“For a considerable time the conduct of the American consular authorities in the German Reich and in the areas occupied by the German [Page 631] troops has given cause for serious complaint. The Foreign Office possesses extensive material to the effect that a number of these authorities have been guilty of machinations (machenschaften) injurious to the State and of an illicit (unerlaubt) information service, and have thus acted in a manner entirely incompatible with the duties incumbent upon them toward the country of which they are guests. The Reich Government therefore finds itself compelled to request the Government of the United States of America to take the necessary steps in order that all American officers and all American employees of the consular establishments of the United States in the German Reich as well as in Norway, Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, the occupied part of France, in Serbia and in the parts of Greece occupied by German troops may be withdrawn from these areas not later than July 15th 1941 and that the consular establishments may be closed.
“Moreover the Reich Government has ascertained that employees of the American Express Company in the German Reich and in the occupied areas have conducted themselves in a manner contrary to the interests of the German Reich. The Reich Government must therefore request that the same procedure be followed not later than July 15th 1941 with respect to the offices of the American Express Company in the aforementioned areas and to all its employees so far as they are citizens of the United States.”
Weizsaecker added orally that all necessary arrangements would be made by the German authorities to permit our consular personnel to depart from Germany and the German-occupied territories within the allotted time and suggested that officers of the Embassy consult the Protocol Section of the Foreign Office with regard to the details of these arrangements. He added that the Consular Section of this Mission would have to cease all contact with the German authorities and that all consular matters requiring such contact would have to be handled by the Embassy proper through the accepted diplomatic channels.
- Ernst von Weizsäcker.↩