File No. 862.85/623
The Ambassador in Argentina ( Stimson ) to the Secretary of State
[Received 3.47 p.m.]
My November 5, 1 p.m.1 A guard was placed upon the other German vessels in Buenos Aires and Rosario yesterday. The official announcement published in La Epoca of last night is that they “have been occupied by military forces by order of the Government in the exercise of its sovereignty and in prevision of any possible event.”
I am now informed by both the British and Swiss ministers that it is intended to send the Bahia Blanca to Cette with a cargo of food for Switzerland. In conversation with the British Minister the Minister for Foreign Affairs has stated that there is a precedent for the use of this vessel by the Argentine Government in the action of the Government of the United States in buying ships from the Central Powers since the outbreak of war.
I had a conversation this morning with the Minister for Foreign Affairs regarding the matter of the. German vessels. He stated to me that the precedent referred to by him in a conversation with the British Minister was the purchase by the United States of certain Austrian vessels in this country and in Brazil.2 I reminded him, however, that this purchase was effected after our Government had entered the war and consequently raised no question of international law. He stated further that Naón had advised him that the Government of the United States was willing to have the Argentine Government purchase the German ships here if it could acquire them.
He confirmed my information to the effect that it was the desire of the Swiss Minister to have the Bahia Blanca go to Cette with a cargo of foodstuffs destined for Switzerland and repeated that the Argentine Government had bought the vessel for a “war transport” [Page 1753] maintaining that Argentine flag had been duly raised upon her and the price paid, 7,500,000 crowns Swedish, was given to the National City Bank here for ultimate transmission through Stockholm to the owners, the Hamburg-American Line, and stated emphatically that the transaction was bona fide and that the transfer of ownership was absolute.
The Minister stated in amplification of the newspaper reports regarding the guards placed on the German vessels here that the Government had received definite information to the effect that extensive sabotage was contemplated and that it had taken them over in the interest of whomever the safety of the ships’ company might concern adding that that might be possibly the United States, meaning, I presume, they might be acquired as indemnity as a result of the peace negotiations.
- Vol. I, p. 738.↩
- See Supplement 2, pp. 445 et seq. ↩