Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1942, General; the British Commonwealth; the Far East, Volume I

390.1115A/645: Telegram

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

Washington , January 20, 1942.

161. Your 173, 17th.²⁶ Please ask the Swiss Government to be good enough to inform its Minister at Tokyo for his information and that of Japanese Government as follows:

• “1. The United States Government is prepared upon request of representatives of the protecting powers to facilitate visits by those representatives to Japanese nationals who may be temporarily detained, interned, or under parole (surveillance).
• 2. The United States Government has already requested the Swiss Government to convey to the Japanese Government its intention to extend the provisions of the Geneva Prisoners of War Convention of 1929, in so far as adaptable, to any civilian aliens that may be interned, and has expressed the hope that the Japanese Government would apply the provisions of the Convention reciprocally in this sense. Article 86 of that Convention would seem to apply to the query of the Swiss Minister at Tokyo.”

Hull

26. Not printed; it reported a Japanese request “to know if American Government authorizes Spanish representative [to] visit Japanese nationals arrested or under surveillance [of] American authorities.”