AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external]) broken

[Charles Wilson <cwilson at ece dot gatech dot edu>]

If I use AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external]) in my configure.ac, then I shouldn't 
need to have /po and /intl directories in my tree.  However, these 
checks don't allow that exception:

From automake.in:
sub handle_gettext
{
    return if ! $seen_gettext || $relative_dir ne '.';

    if (! variable_defined ('SUBDIRS'))
    {
   conf_error ("AM_GNU_GETTEXT used but SUBDIRS not defined");
   return;
    }

    my @subdirs = &variable_value_as_list_recursive ('SUBDIRS', 'all');
    macro_error ('SUBDIRS',
       "AM_GNU_GETTEXT used but `po' not in SUBDIRS")
   if ! grep ('po', @subdirs);
    macro_error ('SUBDIRS',
       "AM_GNU_GETTEXT used but `intl' not in SUBDIRS")
   if ! grep ('intl', @subdirs);

    require_file ($ac_gettext_location, GNU, 'ABOUT-NLS');
}

Shouldn't all of these be optional if 'external' is specified?

--Chuck