823.248/250
The Peruvian Ambassador (Freyre) to the Secretary of State
Excellency: The Government of Peru purchased from the Government of Norway, by a contract signed on August 15, 1941, 18 Douglas Airplanes, Model 8A–5. The Department of State was informed in good time of the negotiations which concluded with the purchase of that material by my Government, as the vendor requested.
The transfer of title having been perfected on the date indicated above, the Peruvian Government solicited of the United States Government, by a note23 which I had the honor to address to Your Excellency on the 19th of the same month of August, the facilities necessary for the transit of the airplanes from Toronto, Canada, where they had been purchased, to the port of New York, whence they were to be shipped to Callao, Peru. For this purpose, my Government decided to send to New York the Marañón, a vessel belonging to the Peruvian Steamship Company [Compañía Peruana de Vapores].24
[Page 509]On August 30, 1941, the Department of State was good enough to inform this Embassy25 to the effect that it would give immediate consideration to the applications for licenses which were made for the importation from Canada and the exportation to Peru of the 18 Douglas airplanes, Model 8A–5, to which I refer, and shortly afterward the corresponding licenses were issued by the Department of State.
All these formalities having been complied with, the Embassy in my charge was disagreeably surprised on Monday, September 22 last, by the information that, by direction of the Collector of Customs of New York, and at the time when the Peruvian airplanes were loaded, some on board the Marañón and some on the Grace Line ship Santa Rita, it was ordered that they should again be placed on land on the pretext that the content of the cases “belonging to a foreign government” would first have to be examined by the customs authorities. Later, the same Collector, Mr. Durning, alleged that the operation of unloading that was required was made necessary by the circumstance that goods belonging to Norway were involved, whose funds and credits are frozen in the United States.
The unjustified reasons given for making the arbitrary action of the New York Customs Service appear proper and the fact that, in disregard of elemental duties of international courtesy, no suggestion or notice capable of explaining in any way the unloading that was ordered was given to my Government in due time, led me to believe sincerely that in this whole question there was nothing more than a serious error committed by the customs officials of the port of New York.
With this conviction, I have been discussing the matter verbally with the Department of State, starting on that said Monday, September 22, 1941 and continuing until today, to the end of clearing up this troublesome matter, and the time has come when I must go on record before Your Excellency to the effect that I have not yet been able to obtain the necessary reparation on the part of the United States Government. Far from it, I have been told that “possibly” the War Department has shown interest in the detention of the Peruvian airplanes and that this interest must undoubtedly be the cause of the whole occurrence.
It certainly would not be friendly under the present circumstances, while still awaiting the definitive reply of Your Excellency, for me to adduce any reason contrary to the purpose which might be attributed to the War Department of this country, of disposing freely of material of foreign ownership. The Government of Peru well knows that the domestic and international policy of the United States is adjusted to the principles of law, and it would not venture to offer to this nation [Page 510] the offense of supposing that, disregarding the legal norms which guarantee the property system and forgetting the mutual consideration owed to each other by states, it should commit such a serious infraction as would be the act of depriving its legitimate owner of a thing which legally belongs to him.
It is for this reason that the present note which I am sending to Your Excellency, in compliance with special instructions from the Government of Peru, is limited to protesting energetically against the arbitrary detention which the New York Custom House has made of the 18 Douglas airplanes, Model 8A–5, belonging to Peru, which should have started for Callao two weeks ago, and to request that immediate and categorical orders be given that this aviation matériel may be transported to its place of destination without loss of time.
My Government likewise instructs me to protest formally, as I do, against the abuse committed by the Collector of Customs of New York in preventing the shipping of articles of commerce belonging to the Peruvian State and to declare to Your Excellency, as I likewise do, that it hopes from the United States Government, in its rectification, that damages and losses occasioned to Peru by the forced stay at New York of the steamer Marañón since September 22, 1941 will be recognized and paid for, as well as all the expenses which it has had to incur through the unloading of eight airplanes from the steamer Santa Rita and the holding of the same on lighters and piers of the said port of New York.
Lastly, my Government reserves the right to claim from that of Your Excellency whatever indemnification may be due because of the injurious effects that the action of the climate might have on the goods belonging to it, held without legal basis by order of agents of the United States Government.
I avail myself [etc.]