Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1943, The British Commonwealth, Eastern Europe, the Far East, Volume III

701.0090/1730

The Department of State to the Spanish Embassy

Memorandum

The Department of State refers to its recent memorandum to the Spanish Embassy⁷¹ in charge of Japanese interests in continental United States in which mention was made that the exchange vessel Gripsholm on its outbound voyage to Mormugão would call at a Rio de la Plata port.

The Department has been informed that the Gripsholm, when fully loaded with passengers and supplies, might encounter difficulties in entering the port of Buenos Aires because of possible shallow places in the Rio de la Plata channel. It is furthermore understood that the voyage of the vessel upstream to Buenos Aires and return would consume two days, delaying the actual exchange of nationals at Mormugão by that length of time. The Department has obtained from the Argentine Government its consent in principle that passengers and baggage for the Gripsholm, which should be placed on that vessel at Buenos Aires, be embarked instead on the regular night boat from Buenos Aires to Montevideo and be transferred to the Gripsholm in the stream at Montevideo. The Department is seeking the agreement of the Chilean and Uruguayan Governments to this procedure and hopes that the Japanese Government will likewise be agreeable.

According to the understanding of the Department of State the following passengers should leave Buenos Aires:

(a) Six Japanese nationals from Argentina.

(b) 77 Japanese nationals from Chile.

(c) The Spanish Military Attaché and the three members of his family being transferred from Buenos Aires to Tokyo.

The Department would appreciate being informed urgently of the views of the Japanese Government on this proposal.⁷²

Washington , August 9, 1943.

71. August 7, not printed; for summary, see telegram No. 1888, August 7, to the Minister in Switzerland, p. 893.
72. In memorandum No. 240, August 24, the Spanish Embassy informed the Department that the Japanese Government agreed to permit Japanese evacuees from Chile and Argentina to embark at Montevideo provided that the passengers and their baggage would not be subject to search by Uruguayan authorities. The Uruguayan Foreign Office informed the American Embassy on August 25 that these Japanese would be treated as persons in transit and therefore not subject to examination. (701.0090/1901)