810.24/98a

The Secretary of State to the Uruguayan Minister (Richling)10

The Secretary of State presents his compliments to the Honorable the Minister of Uruguay and has the honor to inform him that the Secretary of War recently declared surplus some arms and ammunition belonging to this Government. A partial list of the arms and ammunition declared surplus was obtained by representatives of the press and published some weeks ago. As a result of this publication, the representatives in Washington of some of the American Republics have informed Mr. Hull that the governments which they represent may possibly desire to purchase some of the articles declared surplus. Arrangements will be made for them to discuss this matter, if they so desire, with the appropriate officers of the War Department. As this Government wishes to give all of the Republics of this hemisphere the same opportunity to purchase such of these surplus arms as they may wish to acquire for their own defense, Mr. Hull encloses, for Mr. Bidding’s information, a copy of the list of arms referred to.11 Should the Uruguayan Government be interested in negotiating for the purchase of any of these arms, it is suggested that Mr. Richling may wish to communicate informally to the Chief of the Division of Controls of the Department the name or names of the representative or representatives of his Government who may be charged with conducting negotiations with the War Department. Arrangements will then be made for the presentation of such representatives to the appropriate officers of the War Department.

  1. Sent, mutatis mutandis, to the Chiefs of Mission of Bolivia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela.
  2. Not attached to file copy of this document.