Press Release Issued by the Department of State on December 20, 19396
The Department, after consultation with the War and Navy Departments, has decided that the national interest suggests that for the time [Page 204] being there should be no further delivery to certain countries of plans, plants, manufacturing rights, or technical information required for the production of high quality aviation gasoline.
This decision has been reached with a view to conserving in this country certain technical information of strategic importance and as an extension of the announced policy of this Government in regard to the sale of airplanes, aeronautical equipment, and materials essential to airplane manufacture to countries the armed forces of which are engaged in unprovoked bombing or machine-gunning of civilian populations from the air.
The interested American oil companies have been informed of the Government’s decision in this matter.
- Reprinted from Department of State, Bulletin, December 23, 1939 (vol. i, No. 26), p. 714.↩