DIPLOMATIC CORPS

Orzel · Post by **Orzel** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 3:30 pm

Hi, this question has bothered me for a while what happens to countries diplomats in times of war? Im assuming that Allied Diplomats in Axis countries were interred(the same being true of course of Axis Diplomats in Allied Countries) But what about in Neutral countries? What would happen for ex to the Polish embassy in Spain(following 1939)? Would it continue to function normally? Now what happened after the war were the Diplomats recalled or replaced? This question although pertaining to WWII can be used for other instances as well, specifically Im wondering what happened to Iraqi Embassies following the war of 2003? Is there some kind of Diplomatic protocol as to how to handle Diplomates/Envoys from enemy states? Are the Diplomats immediately replaced following a change in Government like the case in Post WWII Poland or presently Iraq? Also Im assuming that every Embassy has sufficient funds to function independently of events in the Home country, is this true? And finally I know Im stretching this but what about tourists, eg german tourists in the USA, were they interned or returned to Germany?

sid guttridge · Post by **sid guttridge** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 9:18 am

Hi Orzel,

According to international agrrements, all registered diplomatic personnel must be repatriated safely to their home countries on the outbreak of war. Their residual interests in the enemy capital were handled by a nominated neutral embassy. This is what happened in WWII as far as I know.

However, given that Germany never actually declared war on Poland and refused to recognise Poland afterwards, I would be interested to know what happened to the Polish ambassador in Berlin.

There is an interesting case amongst the Baltic States. One of their diplomats refused to leave their Washington Embassy when the Baltic States were over run and absorbed by the USSR in 1940. As the US never recognised Soviet possession of the Baltic states he was never removed and was still in residence in 1990! He was promptly appointed ambassador by his resurrected state!

Does anyone have more details of this?

Cheers,

Sid.

sid guttridge · Post by **sid guttridge** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 9:25 am

P.S. It was the Latvian Embassy in Washington and the diplomat who served there in exile from 1940 to 1991 was called Anatols Dinsberg.

Orzel · Post by **Orzel** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 5:01 pm

sid, thank you for your response, you do bring up a curious point what did happen to the Polish diplomats in Berlin, also in current terms what happened to the Iraqi diplomats in 2003 in the USA?

ak74u · Post by **ak74u** » Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:53 pm

I saw a picture over at ww2database.com of a swedish ship with markings all over the hulls saying it was swedish and neutral, the caption said that the ship carried US/UK diplotmats from Japan to the US

I'll see if I can find it again

Grunt · Post by **Grunt** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 4:10 am

For embassies in neutral countries it can be some different ways.

For example, the embassy can refuse to accept the new government and stay loyal to the old one. This was true for the Afghanian embassy in Germany between 1993 and 2001. Although more than 90% of Afghanistan was ruled by the Taliban, the embassy in Berlin was loyal to the Northern Alliance. There was a big party after Kabul was liberated

Different example, same century: After the regime change in Baghdad in 2003, I read an article about the Iraqi embassy in Germany: they were a bit "down", but continued work, removed Saddam´s pictures on the walls and "waited for orders from Baghdad".