Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1940, The American Republics, Volume V

740.00111A.R./934: Telegram

The Ambassador in Brazil (Caffery) to the Secretary of State

Rio de Janeiro, January 16, 1940—2 p.m.
[Received 2:35 p.m.]

21. The Uruguayan Ambassador here¹⁹ has requested me to invite the Department’s attention to the following questions which he presented yesterday on behalf of his Government to the Neutrality Commission.²⁰

• “1st. Belligerent submarines. The possibility of adopting a common American rule regarding the exclusion of said vessels from ports and territorial waters, considering the difficulties involved in observing their activities in fulfilling the duties of a neutral. Such a prohibition has already been decreed by several American countries but it would be suitable to have uniform norms.
• 2d. Auxiliary vessels of belligerent fleets. Cases analogous to that of the German steamer Tacoma recently declared an auxiliary war vessel by the Uruguayan Government²¹ are contemplated. With regard to this it would be suitable to adopt rules relative to belligerent merchant vessels which, while in neutral ports or waters, in one way or another render services to war vessels or are in clandestine communications with them in violation of neutrality.
• 3d. Rules for the internment of officers and crews of warships and auxiliary vessels. Legal status of persons interned. In particular whether belligerent Governments may employ refugees or interned persons in their service when this service is not for war purposes. The question might also be studied whether a belligerent government itself may change the legal status of a person interned in a neutral country.”

Caffery

19. Juan Carlos Blanco.
20. See Minutes of the Sessions Held by the Inter-American Neutrality Committee, Appendix A, Law and Treaty Series No. 15 (Washington, Pan American Union, 1940?), p. 33.
21. See note of January 3, 1940, from the Uruguayan Minister for Foreign Affairs, vol. i, p. 682.