724.3415/3808: Telegram
The Consul at Geneva (Gilbert) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 8—12:20 p.m.]
146. I have conveyed the information embodied in the first five paragraphs Department’s 54 June 6, 7 p.m. to the legal adviser of the Secretariat. I have thought it inadvisable for reasons analogous to those which I express below to give the impression that I am acting under formal instructions.
The material in the final paragraph is extremely useful to me in my responses to informal inquiries which I couch as simply my personal understanding of these matters. I have, however, refrained from employing this information in any way as a concrete or connected statement and in particular from conveying the inference that I am presenting American official views or that I have received pertinent instructions from the Department. I have, moreover, made no mention [Page 262] of the statement in the final sentence of the paragraph in question. I have done this to avoid what I feel to be a very real danger of giving Paraguayans or any other representatives here the opportunity of construing what I might say as tantamount to American reservations to a complete embargo or as implying that the United States was making its action in any way contingent on the action of other states.
On the supposition that in view of other considerations, the Department desires to have its position in these matters fully clarified here I shall continue in this course unless otherwise instructed.