701.0023/30: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Peru (Norweb)
178. Your 186, February 23, 2 p.m.35 Please call upon the Minister for Foreign Affairs and give him the following oral message from me:
From information which has reached the Department it has become clear that the Axis Governments are assuming an attitude which on the one hand is designed to keep their officials for an indefinite period in some of the American Republics where their continued presence will be a source of danger from every standpoint and on the other hand derogates from the sovereign right of the American Republics in question to determine the time and means of departure from their territory of representatives of governments with which they have broken relations.
The United States Government has completed in full detail an agreement with the Axis Governments for the repatriation of their officials in exchange for the officials of the American Governments. A vessel of this Government provided in order to give effect to these agreements is to call at Callao in the near future and it is contemplated that the Axis officials embarking thereon may be transferred promptly at a United States port to the ship which will carry them to Lisbon. The Axis Governments have been informed and are aware that no comparable transportation facilities exist for the repatriation of their officials with their baggage by any other route.
The arrangements made by this Government would relieve the Peruvian Government of a source of continued apprehension and I earnestly trust that the Peruvian Government will see to it that the arrangements as originally scheduled are carried out. I feel that the cooperation of the United States with Peru in this regard is of the utmost importance to both our countries.
Please give the Minister my very warm personal regards and the expression of my hope that we can continue to cooperate effectively together.
Please telegraph me urgently the nature of the reply made.
- Not printed; it informed the Department of a report that the German Government had started negotiations with the Swedish Government for repatriation of diplomatic representatives by some other means than through the United States.↩