852.2221/630a: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Consul at Seville (Bay)
Department’s telegrams of September 24, 5 p.m., and October 20, 6 p.m.13 We have received a number of communications from relatives [Page 555] and friends of Americans reported captured by insurgents while serving with Spanish Government forces, requesting our intervention to obtain their release or to assure their safety. We have replied in all such cases that American citizens who voluntarily enter the military services of a foreign government must look to it for protection and cannot expect to receive the protection which is ordinarily accorded by this Government to its citizens abroad. For this reason we have generally limited our action in the cases of Americans serving in the armed forces in Spain to requesting our consular officers to report whatever information they might be able to obtain through unofficial channels regarding their whereabouts and welfare.
However, in the case of Dahl you were authorized, in view of reports that he was likely to be sentenced to death, orally to inform General Queipo de Llano that it is our understanding that the internationally recognized laws of war do not sanction the execution of prisoners. In view of similar reports regarding the fate of the Americans mentioned in our telegrams under reference, although we have received no confirmation of such reports, you may, if you think circumstances call for it, again bring our position in this regard informally to the attention of the insurgent authorities through General Queipo de Llano.
- Neither printed.↩