825.796/17: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Chile (Collier)
27. The Department has been informed that the Compagnie Latécoère82 has requested the Government of Chile to grant it an air monopoly service from east to west between Chile and Brazil.
The United States Government, through the Post Office Department, contemplates launching a project for supplying an air mail service directly from this country to the southernmost populous city of Chile. Persons who are interested in performing such a service have been conferred with. The Bureau of the Budget will transmit to Congress a request for an appropriation of $2,000,000 to be used by the Post Office Department for the purpose described above.
These plans would be very seriously interfered with if Chile were to grant such an exclusive right to any company, wherever domiciled, because the United States Post Office Department contemplates the delivery of the mails transmitted to Chile by American airships to the east coast of South America by means of other air companies yet to be consulted. American interests might be prevented from establishing these lines if any exclusive concessions to operate air lines in Chile were granted. As you know the United States has always felt very strongly that an “open door” policy in such matters is best calculated to benefit all concerned.
[Page 806]Discuss this matter with President Ibanez immediately, informally and confidentially, and intimate that the Government of the United States would be pleased to see Chilean and American aeronautical interests eventually joined in the development of aviation, and that this Government would appreciate it if the field were kept open pending the presentation and maturing of these projects.
- Compañía General de Empresas Aeronauticas, Lineas Latécoère.↩