German Consul-General Baron Kurt von Tippelskirch refused late today to amplify to a Jewish Telegraphic Agency correspondent his statement that Governor James M. Curley had “violate diplomatic usage” in writing a letter to the consul backing the action of the State Legislature in condemning Nazi persecution of minorities.
The Baron “has nothing else to say, absolutely nothing else to say,” the correspondent was told.
Earlier in the day, the consul had threatened to complain to the German Embassy in Washington and to his own government against the censure of Germany in the resolution of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and in letters from Governor Curley and Speaker Leverett Saltonstall.
The Baron expressed himself as “very much displeased” that correspondence to him was released to the press and the public before he had received it. He regarded this act as a “serious breach of courtesy.”
Late this afternoon he would not even say whether he had received the communications.
Governor Curley’s and Speaker Saltonstall’s letters had been written in reply to the Consul General’s protest against a resolution adopted Monday by the House denouncing religious persecution in Germany.
The Governor expressed the opinion that the resolution was “an honest and open expression of the secret opinion of Americans generally.” He took issue with the consul’s protest that the resolution constituted an “unwarranted and unpardonable interference with domestic affairs of my country.”
Governor Curley’s letter concluded: “A pursuance of the program that has been followed during the past year by the Nazi government
is abhorrent to right-thinking women and men the world over and not in keeping with the spirit of the times.”
In the resolution, the House viewed “with alarm that certain inhabitants of Germany are being persecuted on account of their religious faith and nationality” and affirmed that “freedom and equality of mankind, regardless of race, creed or color, is indispensable to the maintenance of modern civilization.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
