740.00115 European War 1939/283: Telegram
The Chargé in the United Kingdom (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 2—5:30 p.m.]
Following telegram has been received from Brussels:
52, February 2, 5 p.m.; [Berlin] 46, February 2, 9 a.m. Notify Foreign Office and repeat to Department. Your 33, January 24, 6 p.m.95 Information given in the British letter of January 23 was communicated to the Foreign Office on January 27 but no answer has as yet been received as the German Foreign Office is presumably considering it in connection with the information set forth in the British note of December 20 to the Swiss Legation.
In a conversation today with the competent official of the German Foreign Office it was orally stated that the police authorities had been instructed to grant departure permits to all British women, boys under 18, and men over 60 of the United Kingdom who desire to depart. It was stated that this action is at present fully under way and that many permits should be granted in the near future. The Foreign Office official, however, declared that of the 380 names which had been submitted by this Embassy as persons desiring to depart many of them were now refusing to avail themselves of this opportunity. The Embassy assumes that British subjects who are able to depart from Germany but who do not do so should not receive any further financial assistance and in the absence of instructions to the contrary the Embassy and Consulates will adopt this policy.
It was also stated at the Foreign Office that the German Government was not yet willing to release the Palestinian and Australian women still held in jail, in the absence of information that German women had been released from confinement in Palestine and Australia. Any information respecting the release of German women in these territories would obviously facilitate the Embassy’s endeavors [Page 188] to obtain the release of Australian and Palestinian women still confined. Furthermore the Embassy should be notified if German women, children and old men are being released from Canada and India. Kirk. Cudahy.
- Not printed; it quoted a British note, dated January 23, conveying information concerning the number of Germans who had left British territory since the beginning of the war (362.4115/117).↩