Office of the Historian

740.00116 European War, 1939/111a: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt)2f

Washington, December 4, 1939—6 p.m.

265. The President released the following statement to the press on December 2:2g

“The American Government and the American people have for some time pursued a policy of wholeheartedly condemning the unprovoked bombing and machine gunning of civilian populations from the air.

“This Government hopes, to the end that such unprovoked bombing shall not be given material encouragement in the light of recent recurrence of such acts, that American manufacturers and exporters of airplanes, aeronautical equipment and materials essential to airplane manufacture, will bear this fact in mind before negotiating contracts for the exportation of these articles to nations obviously guilty of such unprovoked bombing.”

Hull
  1. Repeated as telegram No. 184 to the Legation in Sweden for transmission to the Legation in Finland.↩

  2. Printed in Department of State, Bulletin, December 16, 1939, p. 686. This statement was enclosed in letters of December 12, 1939, informing persons and companies who were makers of airplanes, parts, etc., that the Department of State hoped that it would not receive any applications for licenses to make exports to countries engaged in such bombing or machine-gunning. As molybdenum and aluminum were considered to be “materials essential to airplane manufacture,” a similar letter was addressed on December 15, 1939, to the producers of molybdenum and aluminum. (The texts of these letters are printed, ibid., p. 685.) A press release of December 20, 1939, indicated that American oil companies had been advised that the national interest suggested there should be no further delivery for the time being to certain countries of the information required for the production of high quality aviation gasoline. (Ibid., December 23, 1939, p. 714. See also the Department’s telegram No. 313, December 24, 1939, 4 p.m., to the Ambassador in the Soviet Union, p. 806.)

    That this policy was a “moral embargo” was plainly explained in a letter of December 27, 1939, from Joseph C. Green, Chief of the Division of Controls, sent to the Taylorcraft Aviation Corporation, Alliance, Ohio: “As you are of course aware the policy takes the form merely of a request for cooperation by this Government to manufacturers and exporters. There is no law now in effect authorizing the prohibition of the export of articles essential to the manufacture of aircraft.” (700.00116 Moral Embargo/1)

    ↩