765.84/4860: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister Resident in Ethiopia (Engert)
Washington, July 21, 1936—5
p.m.
316. Your 476, July 16, 9 a.m., paragraph 6.
- (1)
- Please keep the Department advised regarding arrival of arms and ammunition from Djibouti. If you have any reason to believe that there will be further delay in their delivery the Department will take up the matter at Paris and Borne with a view to making necessary arrangements.
- (2)
- Department appreciates the difficulty involved in introducing into the Legation compound additional guards of unproved loyalty. However, would not your defensive strength be greatly increased by a few machine guns which might either be sent out from here or be borrowed from the Italian authorities? In submitting your comments on this point please bear in mind the adverse criticism to which the Department was subjected last May for not having furnished the Legation with machine guns.36
- (3)
- In short, the Department is desirous of taking every possible precaution with a view to preventing the Legation staff and American nationals in Addis Ababa from again being subjected to such a situation as occurred early in May. To this end the question of subletting the Belgian Legation has been taken up at Brussels. Pending the receipt of a reply of which you will be advised please telegraph the earliest date on which you could cancel the lease on the present Legation.
Hull