Memorandum from Acting Secretary of State Joseph Grew to President Harry S. Truman

May 28, 1945 MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT Subject: Requesting the President to return to the Secretary of State discretionary authority with reference to marriage of Foreign Ser- vice Officers to aliens. Since November 17, 1936, an Executive Order has been in effect requiring that Foreign Service Officers contem- plating marriage to aliens should before contracting such marriage, request the permission of the Secretary of State and at the same time submit their resignations from the Service. Prior to the present war, it was not unusual for the Secretary of State to decline to accept such resignations but at the same time to indicate to the officer in question that his marriage to an alien might complicate his career as a Foreign Service Officer and that his record might thereby suffer. This had the effect of discouraging such marriages although they did occur from time to time. Upon the entry of the United States into the war the question was presented to President Roosevelt who indicated that he did not wish any such marriages to be permitted during the course of the war. Following this directive all such requests have been refused. A number of Foreign Ser- vice Officers have nevertheless married aliens and their resignations have been accepted, even though we could not, in the face of the manpower shortage with which we have had to contend, afford to lose their services. In certain other cases, although the proportion is not great with rela- tion to the Service as a whole, the officers have postponed TRUMAR their ARCHIVES AND NATIONAL SERVICE" RECORDS to and