724.3415/4161
The Permian Ambassador (Freyre) to the Secretary of State
Your Excellency: My Government have learnt with pained surprise that statements have been made before the Committee of the United States Senate, now investigating the sale abroad of armament by American manufacturers, to the effect that the Peruvian Government had acquired armament for the purpose of transferring it subsequently to the Government of Bolivia.
My Government instruct me categorically to declare that they have not sold or transferred armament to any country or individual. My Government deplore that suspicions and distrust should thus be allowed to spread, by means of baseless charges, thereby producing a situation liable to cause serious trouble among the countries of our Continent. Statements such as these, being contrary to fact, cannot be passed unchallenged, lest a doubt should subsist as to their accuracy.
I have therefore been ordered to enter a formal protest, as I hereby have the honour to do, against the charge to which I refer, namely that my Government had purchased armament for the purpose of delivering it later to the Government of Bolivia.
I have [etc.]