740.00119 European War 1939/1423
The Director of the Office of Strategic Services (Donovan) to the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
My Dear Mr. Welles: Pursuant to your letter of March 27, 194315 (Reference A–B) we have instructed our representatives in Sweden, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland and Turkey in language of which the following is a paraphrase:
“At the request of the Under Secretary of State you are hereby instructed that in case contact is made with you by anyone purporting to speak on behalf of any enemy government or group within an enemy country you shall report this fact immediately to the American Ambassador or Minister resident in the country where you are stationed. In case of need such report may be given instead to the nearest American Consul.
“The above instruction is issued in view of the increasing number of efforts which are being made from the Axis satellite states to contact American Government officials.”
Mr. Berle16 has been informed of certain such approaches, already made indirectly to our representative in Switzerland. For your and his convenient reference we attach briefs covering such approaches.15 In all these cases the American Minister has been simultaneously informed by our representative with whom he is working closely.
These proposals are the only ones known to us to have been made to our people in any of the countries mentioned above. Under our previous instructions they have been bound to report such overtures to American diplomatic officers in the country where they are stationed. These new instructions will confirm and regularize existing practice.
Sincerely yours,