711.00111 Armament Control/168: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Italy (Long)
174. Your No. 714, October 15, 11 a.m.24 For your information and guidance in any further conversations you may have in regard to our neutrality policy:
Section 1 of the Neutrality Act reads in part as follows:
“That upon the outbreak or during the progress of war between, or among, two or more foreign states, the President shall proclaim such fact, and it shall thereafter be unlawful to export arms, ammunition, or implements of war from any place in the United States, or possessions of the United States, to any port of such belligerent states, or to any neutral port for transshipment to, or for the use of, a belligerent country.
[Page 807]“The President may, from time to time, by proclamation, extend such embargo upon the export of arms, ammunition, or implements of war to other states as and when they may become involved in such war.”
Your attention is invited to the use of the word “shall” in the first paragraph quoted above and to the use of the word “may” in the second paragraph.
Section 6 reads in part as follows:
“Whenever, during any war in which the United States is neutral, the President shall find that the maintenance of peace between the United States and foreign nations, or the protection of the lives of citizens of the United States, or the protection of the commercial interests of the United States and its citizens, or the security of the United States requires that the American citizens should refrain from traveling as passengers on the vessels of any belligerent nation, he shall so proclaim, and thereafter no citizen of the United States shall travel on any vessel of any belligerent nation except at his own risk.…”
Your attention is invited to the fact that the authority conferred upon the President by this language is such as to give him wide discretion in the use of the power conferred.
The statement of the President made at the time he issued his Proclamations, pursuant to the Neutrality Act, reads in part as follows:
“In these specific circumstances I desire it to be understood that any of our people who voluntarily engage in transactions of any character with either of the belligerents do so at their own risk.”
I invite your particular attention to the words “in these specific circumstances”.
I have consistently avoided any statement as to the eventual application of our neutrality policy in any circumstances which have not yet arisen.
In the exceedingly grave and delicate circumstances and conditions that are changing from day to day, this Government and its spokesmen cannot be too guarded in their statements and, as a general rule, should not interpret or undertake to announce our possible future attitude and course.
- Not printed, but for reference to substance of telegram, see supra. ↩