Foreign Relations of the United States, Diplomatic Papers, 1944, General, Volume I

840.48 Refugees/5499b: Circular airgram

The Secretary of State to Certain Diplomatic Representatives in the American Republics ⁶⁵

Washington, March 31, 1944—1:05 p.m.

Refer our previous communications regarding War Refugee Board. Information has been received that there are in enemy-occupied Europe a number of persons holding passports issued in the names of various Latin American countries including the country to which you are accredited.⁶⁶ Our information is that in a large number of cases such persons are interned under conditions which are immeasurably better than the treatment they would receive if they did not have such passports. It is reported that without such passports, such persons would be transported to Poland and death.

The plight of these refugees was the subject of a memorandum presented to the Department by the Polish Ambassador in Washington on December 24, 1943,⁶⁷ in support of the request of his government that this Government intercede on humanitarian grounds to save the persons concerned from deportation to Poland by interceding to prevent the withdrawal of these passports in cases in which they may have been improperly issued.

[Here follow excerpts from telegram 1708, March 2 (paragraphs 3, 4, and 6), from London, printed on page 1000.]

Although the Department does not condone the unauthorized issue of passports, it does not follow that the Department should withhold its intercession in a situation in which the lives of so many persons are at stake. The Department and the War Refugee Board agree with Emerson that where thousands of human lives lie in the balance because of war conditions and enemy persecutions, appropriate steps should be taken to avoid the nonrecognition by the Germans of such passports.

The Department understands that these passports, appearing on their face to have been issued by competent officials, are valid until they are cancelled. While Department agrees that the Government to which you are accredited is entirely within its right in cancelling such passports, it urges that the right of cancellation be not exercised until the holders shall have reached a place of safety, so that the act of cancellation shall not be, in essence, condemnation of the holder to a terrible death. All that is here asked is that the Government to which you are accredited deal with the question at a time when it shall occasion the least possible measure of human suffering.

Special Instructions to the Ambassador.

You are instructed to memorize the contents of this airgram, burn the document and discuss the matter orally with the government to which you are accredited. Such report as you submit to the Department on this subject should be by secret courier.

Hull

65. The diplomatic representatives in Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru, and Venezuela.
66. Information later received from private sources indicated that passports and documents issued in the names of Bolivia, Chile, Cuba, Guatemala, and Uruguay were likewise involved; accordingly, the circular airgram of March 31 was repeated in substance to those countries on May 1.
67. Not printed; for text of Department’s reply, see note of January 11, p. 981.