The Provost Marshal General is to some degree candid about this:[137]
That the boards occasionally allowed themselves the patriot’s privilege of pleading with the man who had not fully reflected on his duty is not to be doubted. An Italian was about to claim exemption on account of alien citizenship.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” asked the chairman of the board.
“Why not?” was the inquiry.
“There are two reasons,” said the official. “One is the United States, the other is Italy. Two flags call you to the colors. There is a double reason for you.”
“I’ll go,” he said.
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: