Table XXXIII
Diplomatic Requests for Discharge of Aliens, and Total Registration of Aliens, by Country of Birth
| ——— | |||||
| ——— | |||||
| Cobellig- erents | Number{1} of Requests | Number Registered{2} | Neutrals | Number{1} of Requests | Number Registered{2} |
| ——— | |||||
| Russia | 1,433 | 808,503 | Switzerland | 995 | 21,888 |
| Italy | 166 | 652,971 | Spain | 592 | 44,320 |
| Greece | 119 | 88,831 | Norway | 404 | 62,656 |
| Portugal | 65 | 62,434 | Denmark | 241 | 33,457 |
| Cuba | 23 | .... | Sweden | 216 | 99,995 |
| Great Britain | 22 | 467,468{3} | Mexico | 109 | 192,617 |
| Japan | 13 | 56,697 | Netherlands | 85 | 27,190 |
| Brazil | 12 | ....{4} | Persia | 61 | ....{4} |
| Belgium | 5 | 16,701 | Colombia | 7 | ....{4} |
| China | 5 | 23,599 | Argentina | 5 | ....{4} |
| Panama | 4 | ....{4} | Ecuador | 4 | ....{4} |
| France | 3 | 18,314 | Peru | 4 | ....{4} |
| Guatemala | 3 | ....{4} | Venezuela | 4 | ....{4} |
| Honduras | 2 | ....{4} | Chile | 2 | ....{4} |
| Siam | 2 | ....{4} | Santo Domingo | 1 | ....{4} |
| ——— | |||||
| Total | 1,877 | 2,228,980{5} | Total | 2,730 | 636,601{5} |
| ——— | |||||
| ——— | ||
| Enemy and Allied-Enemy | Number of Requests{1} | Number Registered{2} |
| ——— | ||
| Turkey | 971 | 81,608 |
| Bulgaria | 304 | 19,873 |
| Austria | 62 | 751,212 |
| Germany | 8 | 158,809 |
| ——— | ||
| Total | 1,345 | 1,011,502{5} |
| ——— | ||
| Grand total | 5,852{6} | .... |
| ——— | ||
| ——— | ||
note 1: Second Report of the Provost Marshal General, 1918, p. 400.
note 2: Ibid., p. 399.
note 3: This total represents the registration from all the British Empire.
note 4: Not separately listed.
note 5: Includes nationalities not listed in this table.
note 6: Sic. as per Reports.
Reciprocal Conscription Among Cobelligerents
A large factor in the diplomatic interchanges arising out of induction or attempted induction of aliens into the military service was the situation regarding cobelligerents. It does not call for extended description here; suffice it to say that the policy of reciprocal conscription and of crediting registrants, whether citizens or aliens, with the fact of their enlistment under the flag of any of the Allied nations, largely relieved this situation, so far as the nondeclarant alien was concerned. A collateral development was the upgrowth of desire on the part of representatives of the oppressed races of Central Europe to organize armed forces under their own commanders, and to proceed more or less independently to the battle line. Of this the Provost Marshal General says:138
The situation thus presented... was finally relieved in part by two measures. In the first place, the War Department conceded that aliens of the oppressed races, who had already enlisted in the Polish foreign legion, should not be required to be discharged and returned to the American draft; but that in future no such enlistment should be sanctioned. In the second place, the Army Appropriation Act authorized the organization of the Slavic Legion... into which could be enlisted aliens of the oppressed races—Czecho-Slovak, Jugo-Slav, and Ruthenian (omitting Polish), who were otherwise exempted under the draft.... Computations... give estimates for the number of males of military age who would have been eligible for enlistment under this act ranging between 188,000 and 330,000.
Of German Descent, but Loyal Americans
The Provost Marshal General takes occasion to pay high tribute to the thousands of registrants of German stock who “loyally stood by the American flag,” notwithstanding the “natural distrust” at first attending them in public opinion, “and the notorious intrigues of the German government to secure their support.” The opportunity afforded to such of them as could satisfy the courts and the Naturalization Service of their loyalty, to become American citizens, was availed of by them in large numbers. It is regrettable that, as the Provost Marshal General says:139
Unfortunately, time has not sufficed to analyze the naturalization papers and thus discover the variances between the different nationalities in this demonstration of loyalty to their adoptive country.
Desertion, Among Aliens and Citizens
It has been asserted by ill-informed persons representing on the one hand those who attribute inherent deficiencies and evil tendencies to the immigrant as such, and on the other those who seem to think that the immigrant as such is somehow superior to the native-born American, either that the desertions from the army or evasions of military service were inordinately numerous on the part of foreign born as compared with the native born; or, per contra, that “the proportion of desertions among the native born is about twice as great as among the foreign born.”140 In point of exact fact and essential justice, neither of these views is justified. The Provost Marshal General deals directly, and with broad justice, with this situation:141
Of the 474,861 deserters reported, the registration cards of 185,081 state that they are aliens. Of this number, 22,706 had declared their intention to become citizens, and were, therefore, subject to draft, while 129,268 had not declared such intention, and were, therefore, on proper proof of alienage, entitled to exemption. There were also 33,107 enemy aliens, who, of course, would not have been accepted in any event.
There are two main reasons for the large proportion of alien desertions. The first is that many aliens, knowing that under the selective-service law (and also, for many countries, by treaty) they were entitled to exemption, believed that, by stating on the registration cards that they were aliens, they had performed their full duty with respect to the draft; they ignored the regulations which required them to submit proof of alienage. The second is that many of them did not speak English, were ignorant of the laws and customs of this country, did not know that they were required to keep their local boards informed of their addresses, and failed to realize their obligations to this country under the selective-service law. And the difficulty experienced by the local boards in reading and writing their names frequently caused the mail notices addressed to these registrants to go astray.
Apart from the foregoing explanations, however, which would suffice to show that such aliens did not desert in the ordinary sense, but merely failed to come forward to claim their exemption, there was undoubtedly a large exodus of aliens from some of the border states, and those near to the seaboard, where the easiest course for these ignorant and misguided persons seemed to lie in flight beyond the national boundaries.
The figures upon which the Provost Marshal General thus comments are given by him in Table XXXIV.142