740.00111 A.R.–Subs/la: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Argentina (Armour)
102. From the Under Secretary.13 The British Ambassador14 has expressed to me the great concern of the British Government by reason of the fact that the Argentine Government has not taken action similar to that taken by the Government of the United States and the Governments of many other American Republics in excluding belligerent submarines from their ports and territorial waters. The British Government feels that in as much as the British Isles are now receiving their main food supplies from the River Plate, the failure of the Argentine Government to take this action constitutes a material danger, particularly now that Italy has entered the war and disposes of a sufficient number of submarines to be able to send some of them in order to interfere with allied shipping in the South Atlantic.
[Page 779]Please telegraph me whether the Foreign Minister has spoken with you concerning this question and if not, whether you think it would be expedient for you to discuss the question with Dr. Cantilo on the ground that Italy’s participation in the war makes a recurrence of belligerent activities in the waters of the Western Hemisphere more probable, and that the exclusion of belligerent submarines would tend to minimize this danger. [Welles.]