740.00116 EW/11–1444: Telegram
The Minister in Switzerland (Harrison) to the Secretary of State
[Received 8:30 p.m.]
7522. Since receipt of your 3101, September 8,75 I have discussed question of asylum to war criminals on several occasions with Mr. Pilet and have pressed him for more specific assurances. During our last discussion he informed me that he had arranged for a question to be addressed to Federal Council by a member of Parliament on September 29 last, to which he would reply stating position of the Council. He has now furnished me confidentially with text of reply which will, he says, undoubtedly be approved at an early session of the Council.76
Text of proposed reply in translation as follows:
“In accordance with a long series of precedents which are to the honor of Switzerland, Federal Council intends to exercise unquestioned right of sovereign state to give asylum to fugitives whom it considers worthy thereof. It does not, however, feel disposed—even in cases involving risk of death—to authorize without examination refuge on Swiss territory to all those who may request it as the number of fugitives therein has already reached disturbing proportions. It is obvious in particular that asylum could not be granted either to persons who have displayed an unfriendly attitude towards Switzerland or who have committed acts contrary to the laws of war or whose past gives evidence of conceptions incompatible with fundamental traditions of law and humanity.”