812.00Sonora/15: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Mexico (Morrow)
26. Your telegram No. 23, February 14, 1 p.m. The Department will expedite the issuance of export licenses covering military supplies for the Government of Mexico. If the details concerning shipments be submitted to the Department through Ambassador Téllez, it will insure prompt action.
With regard to the Ambassador’s message to Mr. Davidson, the Assistant Secretary of War, the latter advises the Department that Vought, manufacturers of the Corsair plane, are not supplying the War Department.
Consulted Mr. Warner, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, who advises that notwithstanding rule, heretofore strictly enforced by the Navy Department against other powers seeking similar accommodations, not to yield preference to orders for Vought planes from such powers, the Secretary of the Navy, in view of the special circumstances in Mexico, would permit Vought to give preference to the Mexican order for either six or nine planes as Mexico might desire. If you will advise when order is placed, we will inform the Navy Department, which will assist in expediting delivery as much as possible.
Machine guns and bombs, about which Colonel MacNab1 telephoned, must be obtained through the War Department, which cannot [Page 338] make definite commitment until make of machine guns and exact size of bombs are known. If we are furnished that information, the War Department will immediately advise as to its ability to furnish what is desired.
- American Military Attaché in Mexico.↩