Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1943, General, Volume I

811.711/3693a: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Minister in Switzerland (Harrison)⁸

Washington, January 23, 1943.

195. American interests, transmission of documents and messages.

1. The United States Government does not intend to permit, by open mail, diplomatic channels, or otherwise, directly or indirectly, the transmission from the United States to enemy territory or from enemy territory to the United States of documents intended for private use, such as birth, marriage, or death certificates; divorce decrees; legal notices concerning estates, lawsuits, et cetera; powers of attorney; affidavits; deeds to real property; miscellaneous legal documents concerning property or litigation; commissions to take testimony or other documents pertaining to depositions; subpoenas, citations, complaints, or other forms of legal process; or forms submitted in connection with claims for pensions, disability allowances, insurance benefits, et cetera.

2. With the exceptions hereinafter stated, the United States Government does not intend to permit, by open mail, telephone, telegraph, diplomatic channels, or otherwise, directly or indirectly, the transmission from the United States to enemy territory or from enemy territory to the United States of private messages such as those pertaining to private property, business, estates, or the discharge of financial obligations.

3. Subject to censorship, brief paraphrased messages of a personal nature, including welfare and whereabouts inquiries, may be transmitted by telegraph or, where possible, by mail to or from enemy territory through the facilities of the International Red Cross, the American Red Cross, and other national Red Cross societies, or those of other organizations or societies licensed by the Director of Censorship.

4. Only where efforts to communicate through Red Cross facilities are unsuccessful or in other exceptional circumstances will the United States Government permit, subject to censorship, the transmission to or from enemy territory, by official telegrams in plain language, of brief paraphrased messages of a personal nature.

5. The foregoing statements of policy are not to be construed as modifying or limiting the provisions of section IV of the convention relative to the treatment of prisoners of war, signed at Geneva on July 27, 1929.⁹

6. The term “enemy territory” as used in this instruction shall be understood to mean enemy territory as defined in General Ruling No. 11, issued on March 18, 1942 by the Treasury Department pursuant to Executive Order No. 8389, as amended.¹⁰

7. While the Red Cross facilities mentioned in paragraph 3 are available to all persons regardless of nationality, the utilization by the United States Government of official channels in those instances mentioned in paragraph 4 will be restricted to messages transmitted in behalf of nationals of the United States.

8. In connection with its responsibility for the protection of nationals of the United States abroad, the Department will on occasion undertake through diplomatic channels official inquiries (as distinguished from the personal messages mentioned in paragraphs 3 and 4) concerning the welfare and whereabouts of nationals of the United States in enemy territory.

9. The Department wishes to continue to receive for its records and use in connection with the protection of nationals of the United States in enemy territory all possible information concerning the births, marriages, divorces, and deaths of such nationals. Swiss representatives charged with the representation of the interests of the United States should be asked particularly to continue to forward all such information, supported when possible by transcripts of the official records.

10. The Department would also be pleased to receive for its records and use in the protection of private American interests in enemy territory reports concerning the status of private American property, real or personal, including American business and commercial interests; estates of, or bequeathed fully or partially to, nationals of the United States; and semi-public American institutions of an educational, religious, or philanthropic character. The United States Government hopes that the Swiss Government may find it possible to authorize its representatives charged with the representation of the interests of the United States in enemy territory to forward such reports so far as their heavy wartime responsibilities permit.

Hull

8. The substance of this Government’s policy regarding communications to and from enemy territory was also communicated to the foreign diplomatic missions in Washington in a circular note of February 12 (811.711/3690a).
9. Foreign Relations, 1929, vol. i, p. 336.
10. United States Treasury Department, Documents Pertaining to Foreign Funds Control (Washington, March 30, 1944), p. 5.