862.002 Hitler, Adolf/17
Memorandum by the Secretary of State
During the call of the German Ambassador he again brought up the proposed mock trial in New York of the Hitler Government in Germany. He indicated great concern and repeatedly expressed the opinion that he was helpless to make a satisfactory showing to his Government justifying his failure to prevent this mock trial. I stated to him that these people were acting as individuals and not as in any sense representing the Federal Government; that they were not in the slightest under the control of the Federal Government with respect to the proposed trial; that I had not been able to find any legal authority that would enable the Federal Government to instruct or order the participants to refrain from entering upon such mock trial; that, as stated, they did not in any sense whatever represent the attitude of the Federal Government; that I have had all the law books [Page 511] ransacked in an effort to find the complete international law relating to this sort of situation; that I have been disappointed thus far in that no satisfactory or definite law has been discovered that would enable the Federal Government with any legal authority to compel the abandonment of the mock trial proposed; and, finally, that we had examined all of the law books available and were still carefully examining them, and that anything possible to be done in the light of international law would not be overlooked.