Office of the Historian

740.00111A/110b: Circular telegram

The Secretary of State to Diplomatic Missions in the American Republics

Washington, October 19, 1939—4 p.m.

On October 18 the President of the United States announced the following Proclamation with reference to “Use of ports or territorial waters of the United States by submarines of foreign belligerent states”:27

[Here follows text of proclamation printed in Department of State Bulletin, October 21, 1939, page 396, and 54 Stat. 2668.]

Please make the foregoing text available to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, explaining that the action was taken in accordance with paragraph 3, subparagraph (k), of the General Declaration of Neutrality of the American Republics, approved at Panama City on October 3, 1939,28 which states that neutrals “may exclude belligerent submarines from the waters adjacent to their territories or admit them under the condition that they conform to the regulations which each country may prescribe.”

Hull

[The following American Republics adopted legislation or issued decrees during the year 1939 designed to prohibit and/or limit the entry of belligerent submarines into their ports and territorial waters:

  • Brazil (Article 13 of decree-law No. 1561 of September 2, 1939, in Pan American Union, Law and Treaty Series No. 12: Decrees and Regulations on Neutrality, p. 23).
  • Mexico (Article 5–b of decree of September 11, 1939, ibid., p. 51; repeated in article 1 of decree of October 5, 1939, ibid., p. 53).
  • Venezuela (Article 10 of decree of September 12, 1939, ibid., p. 82).
  • Dominican Republic (Article 21 of law No. 163 of October 18, 1939, ibid., p.68).
  • Panama (Decree No. 167 of November 6, 1939, ibid., p. 59).
  • Honduras (Article 9 of decree No. 38 of November 13, 1939, ibid., p. 46).]

  1. A similar proclamation was issued on November 4, 1939, under authority of the joint resolution of November 4, 1939; 54 Stat. 4 and 2672.↩
  2. Department of State Bulletin, October 7, 1939, pp. 326, 328.↩