701.6266A/10–2444: Telegram

The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State

9124. ReDeptel 8153, October 5, midnight. With regard to possibility of using Switzerland as place for exchange of German diplomats formerly at Vatican City and certain British officials detained by Germans, Foreign Office comments in substance as follows:

“We agree that carrying out exchange from Spain or Portugal not possible and we are suggesting to the German Government, via the Swiss Legation in London, that if the Swiss Government will lend its good offices for the exchange we should be prepared to consider the exchange taking place in Switzerland.”2

Winant
  1. The exchange did not take place in Switzerland. The Axis diplomats interned at Taormina were transferred to Salsomaggiore, west of Palma, and repatriated in 1946. The Japanese diplomats at Vatican City departed from Italy on January 27, 1946, as a result of General Douglas Mac Arthur’s directive of October 25, 1945, instructing the Japanese Government to recall diplomatic representatives abroad. The German diplomats at Vatican City retired from Italy on August 30, 1946.