Office of the Historian

340.1115A/2402a: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Chargé in Switzerland (Huddle)

Washington, January 21, 1942.

172. American Interests. Please repeat to missions at Cairo (for Alexandria, Port Said, Aden, Baghdad, Tehran, Jerusalem, Beirut, Ankara, Istanbul, and Ismir); Vichy (for consulates in France including Dakar, Algiers and Tunis and for Tangier and Casablanca); London (for consulates in Great Britain and for Ireland); Lisbon (for consulates under its jurisdiction); and Madrid (for consulates in Spain). You and other offices may repeat by mail if reasonably expeditious. Department will repeat to New Delhi, Pretoria, and Canberra (for repetition by them to nearby offices) and will also issue mimeographed circular instruction to all other offices.9 Please also inform Swiss Government.

1.
All inquiries concerning welfare or whereabouts of, or transmission of funds or messages to, American nationals in enemy territory shall be referred to Department in order that citizenship of such nationals may be verified, their presence in enemy territory recorded, and in Department’s discretion action by Swiss Government requested. In each case, state name and relationship (if any) of inquirer.
2.
In general, inquiries concerning or messages for American nationals in enemy territory will not be transmitted by telegraph unless the person requesting the transmission of the inquiry or message pays all telegraphic charges (which, owing to indirect transmission through Department, Legation Bern, and Swiss channels, will often be considerable).
3.
A deposit amply sufficient to cover all charges shall be required.
4.
Office where inquiry originates (hereinafter called originating office) will be informed in following manner of charges to be debited against deposit:
(A)
Cost of message from Department to Legation Bern and of latter’s reply will be included in figure stated at end of Department’s reply to originating office.
(B)
Cost of message from Swiss Foreign Office to Swiss representative in enemy territory will be shown on separate voucher to be prepared by Swiss Government, copy of which Department will forward by mail to originating office upon receipt of relevant Swiss accounts.
(C)
Cost of Swiss representative’s reply to Swiss Foreign Office will be communicated to originating office in same manner as under 4 (B).
5.
In cases where no reply is expected, following procedure shall be followed:
(A)
Originating office will conclude its telegram with words “charge sender” instead of word “Stcor”.
(B)
Department will by mail inform originating office of cost of Department’s message to legation Bern.
(C)
Cost of message from Swiss Foreign Office to Swiss representative in enemy territory will be communicated to originating office in same manner as under 4 (B).
6.
Officers should bear in mind that the convention relative to the treatment of prisoners of war signed at Geneva July 27, 1929, provides in part that belligerents are bound mutually to notify each other of their capture of prisoners within the shortest possible period and that every prisoner shall be enabled to write his family a postal card informing it of his health. Only in exceptional circumstances, therefore, will the Department ask the Swiss Government to make special inquiries, whether by telegraph at inquirer’s expense or by mail, relative to individual American prisoners of war in enemy hands.
Hull
  1. Circular instruction of January 22, 1942, not printed.↩