361.11/3648: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Minister in Czechoslovakia ( Crane )
8. Your No. 3, January 11, 2 p.m.
You may informally thank the Foreign Office for its proffer of assistance in repatriating Americans in Russia and assure them that the Department would appreciate any efforts they might see fit to make to this end.
The Department has deemed it unwise to single out any one individual American citizen for special consideration, but has based its endeavors on the broad ground of the question of principle. No Russians resident in this country, who are not under common law criminal prosecution, are prevented from returning to their country.
The Department suggests that you explain to the Foreign Office our practice in deporting objectionable aliens. In spite of provocation from the Soviets, this Government did not hold Martens as a hostage in reprisal.
The Department further suggests that it might be advisable for the Czecho-Slovak Red Cross representative to call to the attention of the Soviet authorities the widespread interest in this country in the fate of Mr. Kilpatrick94 of the American Red Cross who was taken prisoner on the Crimean front and in spite of his Red Cross uniform is being held in Moscow. It is such incidents which render impossible any large scale relief work in Russia.
- Capt. Emmet Kilpatrick.↩