Random question of the day: When war is declared between two nations

[Very_Boring_Name]

What happens to diplomats who reside in said nations? Are they taken captive as POW's, or is there some sort of etiquette where they will be returned to their home nations? I'm asking this question specifically with WW2 in mind, and diplomats who may have been living in Germany when war was declared.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

1. In WWII, the diplomats and their families were allowed to leave the country

by all sides

[RandomThoughts]

2. Ahhh the war started years ago

I am due beer and travel money.

and although I don't see an argument to fight, how do they think they can win, when they have not figured out someone should send that?


And the humor is great in this clip.

Blinded by the Light by Manfred Mann's Earth Band
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg8cDmi7-U8

additive, and subtractive. :D

[burnsei sensei]

3. Diplomats, families, and staffs

in embassies, legations, etc. are generally expelled.

[Ozymanithrax]

4. The preferred practice is to expel diplomats and their families...

but this doesn't always happen. Joseph Grew, ambassador to Japan at time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, was first interned in a prison camp but released by the Japanese government and returned to the United States on June 25, 1942.

The U.S. expelled Iraqi diplomats at the beginning of the second gulf war, and tried to get all other nations to do the same.