362.115/403: Telegram
The Chargé in Germany (Gilbert) to the Secretary of State
Berlin, February 7, 1939—6
p.m.
[Received February 7—2 p.m.]
[Received February 7—2 p.m.]
105. Embassy’s telegram 82, February 1, 1 p.m. and despatch No. 530, January 16.45
- 1.
- Geist46 late last evening presented to the competent official at the Foreign Office a first-person note dated February 6 supplementing [Page 581] the Embassy’s note of January 1147 and embodying additional cases of discrimination against Americans under German anti-Jewish measures.
- 2.
- Reaffirming in general terms the declaration in Weizsacker’s note of December 30 last,47a the Foreign Office official concerned said that the German Government recognized the validity of the pertinent German-American treaty provisions and was willing to consider individual cases on this basis. With respect to the cases submitted with the Embassy’s note of January 11 he said that the Foreign Office was not in a position to give a decision as yet inasmuch as these were still being studied by the legal department of the Foreign Office as well as by the Finance Ministry and the competent tax offices. He said that the Embassy would be informed in due course and his statements on this score may be accepted as at least an oral acknowledgment of the Embassy’s previous note. The official remarked incidentally that such cases as emanated from Austria might entail a somewhat longer delay in view of the marked independence and lack of coordination existing among the Austrian authorities which he said had been a source of particular annoyance to the Foreign Office itself.
Gilbert