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.