711.00111 Armament Control/949: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Italy (Long)64

71. The President has just issued Proclamations65 revoking his Proclamation of October 5, 1935, admonishing American citizens that travel on Ethiopian or Italian vessels would be at their own risk and his Proclamation of February 29, 1936, renewing the embargo on arms, ammunition and implements of war destined to Ethiopia or Italy.

These Proclamations will be released for publication in the morning papers of June 21.

When he issued his Proclamations the President also issued a statement,66 for release with the Proclamations, in which he gave reasons for his action in revoking the Proclamations, stating that the specific circumstances which caused him to issue his former Proclamations [Page 213] no longer existed and that his statements in regard to commercial transactions with the belligerents were no longer applicable. The full text of the Proclamations and of the statement will be transmitted in tonight’s radio bulletin.

You are requested to instruct the supervising Consul General at Naples to notify Consulates in Italy that the instructions contained in the Department’s telegram No. 200, November 13, 1935, 6 p.m.67 are revoked. Trade promotion activities in Italy may therefore be resumed. The Secretary of Commerce has been so informed.

Hull
  1. A similar telegram was sent to the Minister Resident in Ethiopia as Department’s No. 282, June 20, 1 p.m.
  2. Dated June 20, 1936; 49 Stat. 3527.
  3. Department of State, Press Releases, June 20, 1936, p. 642.
  4. Foreign Relations, 1935, vol. i, p. 818.