865.85/365c: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Mexico (Daniels)9
The Department’s circular of April 17 regarding the proposed resolution on the shipping situation. At the same time that you discuss with the foreign minister of the country to which you are accredited the text of the resolution which the United States proposes to submit to the Inter-American Financial and Economic Advisory Committee on April 22, please state that, if and when the President of the United States is granted the authority which he has requested from Congress to purchase, requisition or take over foreign ships in American ports, [Page 193] it is proposed to dispose of those ships in such a way as will advance both the participation of the United States in the carrying of inter-American trade and the cause of Great Britain, to which the United States has pledged fullest support and which the United States believes to be vital to the peace and security of the entire continent. It is hoped that, if and when the Mexican Government assumes control over the ships in question in its ports, it will consider favorably conferring with the United States and with the Governments of other interested American Republics in order that the two objectives mentioned may be forwarded to the utmost in the utilization of these vessels.
- The same, mutatis mutandis, on the same date to the Embassies in Cuba, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela, Chile, and Peru.↩