But that the boards should be disparaged for thus at times taking on the attitude of a recruiting officer no one would maintain. Here, as in all other incidents of the draft, the situation varied somewhat in different localities; and without a doubt there were rare and sporadic local instances of carelessness and of bias which led to improper inductions.... These various instances of induction of nondeclarant aliens, whether properly or improperly made, led to a number of diplomatic protests on their behalf by the representatives of foreign governments. The number of these protests reaching this office from the Secretary of State was some 5,852 in all. DIPLOMATIC REQUESTS FOR EXEMPTION The list of these protests is interesting; it is arranged here in the order of the number of cases, but for a fair assessment of the sentiment value involved, one should take into consideration the war status, and the relative proportions, of the nationalities represented in the total registration. These statistics are not in all cases available; but so far as the report of the Provost Marshal General gives them, they are given in the last column: TABLE XXXIII DIPLOMATIC REQUESTS FOR DISCHARGE OF ALIENS, AND TOTAL REGISTRATION OF ALIENS, BY COUNTRY OF BIRTH ======================================================================= | NUMBER | NUMBER{2} | | NUMBER | NUMBER{2} COBELLIG- | OF{1} | REGISTERED | NEUTRALS | OF{1} | REGISTERED ERENTS |REQUESTS| | |REQUESTS| --------------+--------+------------+-------------+--------+----------- | | | | | 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}