740.0011 Pacific War/1505: Telegram
The Ambassador in Chile (Bowers) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 31—11 p.m.]
863. The following is an excerpt in translation from a note dated December 30, 1941, received today from the Chilean Minister for Foreign Affairs acknowledging my note of December 9 informing him that a state of war exists between the United States and Japan.
[Page 79]“In reply I have the honor to inform Your Excellency that the Government of Chile condemns the aggression against the United States of America and, in accordance with its traditional policy of American solidarity, has formulated declarations of adherence to Your Excellency’s country and has adopted resolutions adequate to make effective the association of all the nations of this hemisphere. Among other decisions already known to Your Excellency is the supreme decree which establishes that neither the United States nor the Government of the other American nations which have declared themselves or may declare themselves in a state of war due to this new conflict shall be considered as belligerents in regard to the application of the laws and principles which govern neutrality.
My Government takes pleasure in expressing to Your Excellency its firm intention to continue collaboration with the United States in all aspects of continental defense in accordance with the spirit of the inter-American pacts and in the desire to be helpful to the democratic cause which Your Excellency’s Government so justly defends.
In expressing my fervent wish that peace may soon be reestablished in the American continent, I avail myself, et cetera.”