Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1938, The American Republics, Volume V

611.2331/116: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Chargé in Peru ( Dreyfus )

Washington , November 8, 1938—5 p.m.

46. Your despatch 714, October 25. Supplementing the information already supplied Concha, you should, regarding our attitude toward preferential customs regimes in Central America, refer him to the fact that your Government has as a practice of long standing endeavored in view of the historical precedents involved, to place no obstacle in the way of the fulfilment of any desire that might exist in Central America for closer association between the several states, including the development of closer economic relations through customs preferences; that your Government did not protest the provisions of a Central American convention of 1906³⁶ providing for a considerable degree of preferential customs treatment between several of those states; and that your Government in 1923 took no exception to customs preferences³⁷ in that area.

Regarding the reference in Concha’s note to trade balances with Bolivia and Chile, you should of course resist this argument strongly, citing your Government’s well known position on this question.

A formal reply to Concha’s note is being prepared, but to expedite the conversations, you should indicate to him the nature of the reply to be expected, on the basis of the statements made in your note of September 15, your memorandum of October 21, the Department’s telegram No. 45 of November 1 and herein.

Hull

36. Article 9 of General Treaty of Peace and Amity, signed September 25, 1906, Foreign Relations, 1906, vol. i, p. 857.
37. See Convention for the Establishment of Free Trade, signed February 7, 1923, Conference on Central American Affairs, Washington, December 4, 1922–February 7, 1923 (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1923), p. 388.