Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1934, General, the British Commonwealth, Volume I

811.7435 Amateur/1

The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Argentina (Weddell)⁵

No. 42

Washington, January 19, 1934.

Sir: Article 6 of the General Regulations annexed to the International Radio Convention of Washington, 1927,⁶ to which both Argentina and the United States are parties, provides in part as follows:

• “§ 1. The exchange of communications between private experimental stations of different countries shall be forbidden if the Administration of one of the interested countries has given notice of its opposition to this exchange.
• “§ 2. When this exchange is permitted the communications must, unless the interested countries have entered into other agreements among themselves, be carried on in plain language and be limited to messages bearing upon the experiments and to remarks of a private nature for which, by reason of their unimportance, recourse to the public telegraph service might not be warranted.”

The International Radio Conference of Madrid, 1932, recognized amateur stations and private experimental stations as constituting different classes of stations. An important restriction upon the international exchange of messages by amateur stations on behalf of third parties was incorporated in Article 8 of the Radio Regulations annexed to the International Telecommunication Convention of Madrid, of which Sections 1 and 2 read as follows:

• “§ 1. The exchange of communications between amateur stations and between private experimental stations of different countries shall be forbidden if the Administration of one of the countries concerned has given notice of its opposition to this exchange.
• “§ 2. (1) When this exchange is permitted, the communications must be carried out in plain language and be limited to messages having to do with experiments and remarks of a private nature for which, by reason of their unimportance, there could be no question of resorting to the public telegraph service. Owners of amateur stations shall be strictly prohibited from transmitting international communications emanating from third parties.
• “(2) The above provisions may be modified by special arrangements between the interested countries.”

The Radio Regulations of Madrid were signed on behalf of Argentina and the United States. They have not yet been ratified by the United States, and, so far as the Department is aware, have not been ratified by Argentina. In view of the possible future ratification of the Regulations, however, it is believed desirable to keep the prohibition above quoted from applying at the time of such ratification to messages transmitted by amateur radio stations on behalf of third parties.

In recognition of the important part which radio amateurs have played in the development of radio, the Department is suggesting to a number of other governments the conclusion of agreements which would give radio amateurs some relaxation from the restriction introduced at Madrid. Such a relaxation of the restriction, however, would be of a kind which would not permit radio amateurs to compete with public or commercial radio or telegraph systems.

The Embassy is requested, therefore, unless it perceives objection, to suggest to the Argentine Government an exchange of notes in the following terms:

“Amateur radio stations of Argentina and of the United States may interchange messages on behalf of third parties, provided that such messages shall be of the character that would not normally be sent by any existing means of electrical communication or except for the availability of the amateur stations, and on which no compensation must be directly or indirectly paid.

“This arrangement shall apply to the United States and its territories and possessions including Alaska, the Hawaiian Islands, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, the Panama Canal Zone and the Philippine Islands.

“This arrangement shall be subject to termination by either government on sixty days’ notice to the other government, by further arrangement between the two governments dealing with the same subject, or by the enactment of legislation in either country inconsistent therewith.”

It will be observed that the proposed agreement refers only to messages exchanged on behalf of third parties. This is because under both the Washington and Madrid Regulations operators of amateur stations may exchange international messages on their own behalf in the absence of a prohibition upon such exchange by one of the interested governments.

In view of the important services which radio amateurs have rendered and of the narrow limits within which the exchanges of messages on behalf of third parties would be authorized the Department hopes that the Argentine Government will agree to the proposed exchange.

Very truly yours,

William Phillips

5. Similar instructions were also sent to the Embassies in Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Great Britain, Mexico, Peru, and Spain; and to the Legations in Canada, China, Irish Free State, Portugal, and the Union of South Africa. No reply from the Brazilian Government has been found in the Department files. Instruction No. 210 of May 4, 1935, to the Ambassador in Belgium was altered, since by that date the United States had ratified the Madrid Telecommunication Convention (1932), and the instruction was to apply only to the Belgian Congo and Ruanda-Urundi and not to Belgium itself. The Belgian reply was unfavorable. (811.7445A Amateur/5, 7)
6. For text of Convention signed at Washington, November 25, 1927, see Foreign Relations, 1927, vol. i, p. 288. For text of Regulations, see Department of State Treaty Series No. 767; or 45 Stat 2760; or Treaties. Conventions, etc., vol. iv, p. 5039.