740.00115 European War (1939)/9861
The Ambassador in Paraguay ( Frost ) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 31.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer to my despatch No. 1984 of April 15, 1944 and to confirm hereby my telegram No. 285 of May 20, 4 p.m.75 reporting that the Paraguayan Government has expelled from their places of residence four of the leading German organizers in Paraguay. These persons are as follows: Reimer Behrens, Georg Schneider, Fritz Kliewer and Julius Legiehn. They have been sent to the Village of San Pedro, near the east shore of the Paraguay River north of Puerto Rosario, and are destined for internment at or near the village of Lima, inland from San Pedro.
The two Germans first named have been superior employees of the Banco Germánico here, and Behrens is the Leader of the Nazi Party organization in this country. The operations of the Banco Germánico have been reduced to almost nothing by the intervention of the Paraguayan Government and by the operation of our Proclaimed List and the British Black List. Behrens is said to have boasted that he holds a letter signed by the Minister of the Interior permitting him to emigrate [Page 1499] to Argentina; and we have information that the Argentine Government has agreed to admit both him and Schneider. Careful attention is accordingly being given by the Legal Attaché’s office to verifying that these men are actually interned and do not slip away to Argentine territory.
The second two agents had been respectively the head of the school system and the head of the religious system of the German Mennonite colonies at Philadelphia and Ferhheim, in the Paraguayan Chaco. The Embassy is not yet positive that they have actually arrived at San Pedro, despite assurances from the Minister of the Interior.
The compliance of the Paraguayan Government with the promises given me by the President and the Foreign Minister late in March appears to have been reduced to an absolute minimum, and the implementation even of this minimum in entire good faith is not certain. There is no question however but that the relegation of Behrens and Schneider from Asunción has caused general dismay among the Germans in Paraguay, and that the extrusion of Kliewer and Legiehn from the Mennonite colonies has induced a chastened spirit there. The Minister of the Interior maintains that any rapid or comprehensive action would arouse wide opposition as smacking of needless persecution. The Department will recall that he claims to believe that the Paraguayan tendency invariably to sympathize with the underdog is such that the confinement of the Nazi agents, many of whom are men with wives and families, long settled in Paraguay, would create unrest and criticism of the Government. He has repeatedly assured me that when he has once established his system of relegation, (now apparently really commenced), and created an internment camp or at least a neighborhood in which Germans can be concentrated and guarded, he will gradually increase the number of internees.
Respectfully yours,
- Neither printed.↩