840.48 Refugees/739: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom ( Kennedy ) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 13—5:10 p.m.]
915. From Rublee. The Committee received yesterday a communication from the Chilean Consul General in London, who represents Chile on the Committee, in reply to a request by the Committee to the participating governments to pay their shares of the sum provided in the recently adopted budget for the expenses of the Director’s office. He informs the Committee that his Government has only directed the payment of its share of the expenses of the Evian meeting. He further informs the Committee that the Chilean Government has instructed him that it does not consider itself bound by the resolutions adopted at Evian and London which were merely recommendations to the participating governments and because it always has opposed the establishment of a new organism and has instead desired to have the High Commissioner of the League invested with the necessary powers to maintain inter-governments collaboration, it is unable to accept these resolutions.
- 2.
- It is unfortunate that an important South American country with definite settlement possibilities should withdraw from the Committee before waiting to see what concrete results might be accomplished by the Director. In view of the restrained optimism of the report from our Consul in Chile which we have just received from you, I assume this move was not expected. The British Foreign Office state that they had no information that Chile would withdraw. In view of the unfortunate reaction in Latin America generally to the Evian Conference and the difficult situation in Brazil, you will appreciate that it would be very serious if the fact that Chile has withdrawn should gain widespread publicity in South America and [Page 788] constitute a precedent for withdrawal of other important countries in that part of the world.
- 3.
- With the above in mind I suggest for your consideration the advisability of instructing our representative in Chile to inquire as to the reasons for Chile’s withdrawal and if possible secure reconsideration of this step. It might be explained that the widespread misapprehension in Latin America that the United States and European countries expect to dump penniless refugees in South America is without foundation and that it is realized that extensive retraining of these people as qualified agriculturists is essential before we expect these countries to open their doors. We have asked the Foreign Office here to instruct their representative in Chile to consult with our representative in this matter. [Rublee.]