852.2221/467
The Vice Consul at Valencia (Wells) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 3.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer to the various telegrams and instructions of the Department to this Consulate requesting information with regard to the whereabouts and welfare of American citizens reported to be serving with the Spanish Government military forces. These instructions usually call for a reply by cable.
[Page 517]Except in isolated cases, where the information has been obtained from casual sources, this Consulate has no other source of ascertaining the exact whereabouts and welfare of American volunteers except through official channels, which involves a considerable delay, and makes it impossible to reply immediately in other than a negative sense. A liaison officer of the Spanish Army informed me that such inquiries normally cannot be handled in less than a month. The present procedure followed by the Consulate is to request the information desired through the headquarters of the militia at Valencia. It is then routed to the regional headquarters at Albacete where contact is had with the various fronts where the international brigades are stationed. Previously this Consulate addressed the person direct, in care of Socorro Rojo Internacional (International Red Aid [Cross]) at Albacete, and also a similar inquiry to the Socorro Rojo, but in only one case was a reply ever received. The censorship enforced precludes the practicability of direct inquiries.
Lack of complete records on the part of the Spanish Government with respect to certain volunteer and militia units also makes it difficult to ascertain the whereabouts of an American volunteer unless he is serving in one of the known American units.
This Consulate now has pending for reply instructions from the Department concerning the following American volunteers. Reports are being delayed until such time as some information may be forthcoming from the sources mentioned:
[Here are omitted the names of seven American volunteers, and the Department’s instructions concerning each one of them.]
Respectfully yours,