724.3415/3771a: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Consul at Geneva (Gilbert)
49. Please telegraph briefly concerning the reaction in Geneva to the action of this Government in regard to the Chaco Arms Embargo.
Following for your information. The Baltimore Sun carries a special cable under Geneva date line of May 30, reading in part as follows:
“Dr. W. Krauel, German Consul here, informed Prentiss B. Gilbert, the American Consul, that while Germany could not cooperate with the League undertaking, she, nevertheless, would ship no arms to the belligerents, Paraguay and Bolivia.… Mr. Gilbert, according to the German quarters in which the story was revealed, was nonplussed when the Germans, who withdrew from the League last October, asked the United States, which never has been a member of the League, to make the declaration for them.”
The report continues with a statement that after requesting instructions from the Department you called at the League Secretariat and delivered the message from the German Government.