835.741/16: Telegram
The Ambassador in Argentina (Armour) to the Secretary of State
[Received 8:32 p.m.]
2453. Embassy’s despatch 7343, November 16;11 and telegram 2394, November 27, 7 p.m. Decree controlling telecommunications published last night.12 It suspends international exchange of radiograms in code excepting 100 code words per day which may be sent by Embassies or Consulates. No such restrictions are placed on cables nor on radio messages in clear. Messages in clear are limited to Spanish, Portuguese, French, English, German and Italian. All telecommunications are prohibited which might prejudice security or defense of American states. Radiotelephone messages infringing on foregoing will be interrupted. International telecommunications messages of private parties will be controlled through license and registration. Facsimile service is suspended.
Other sections of decree refer to functions of official interventors to be placed in communications companies and the installation of ten monitoring stations with special reference to clandestine stations.
Text of decree being forwarded by air mail.
[Page 179]Today being a holiday most of Foreign Office officials were absent. However, a memorandum was prepared embodying information in section 2 and section 3 of Department’s 1859, December 1, 9 p.m.13 Original was sent Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs at his house and duplicate was delivered by member of the staff to a Foreign Office official familiar with the matter. The latter said memorandum was very interesting and promised full study. As to decree itself he made following informal comments.
While recognizing that we were not satisfied with the scope of decree as finally issued, he claimed that, nevertheless, it would accomplish a great deal. Previously some of the local Axis Missions had been sending as high as 1500 to 2,000 code words daily, and reduction to a 100 would seriously curtail their activities. Also he said perhaps we were placing too much emphasis on Embassy messages, since formerly any private citizen could transmit subversive messages freely and henceforth this would be strictly controlled. He said there was a definite possibility of imposing further restrictions on Axis communications, and intimated we could make much stronger demands along these lines if we were able to show concrete evidence of subversive information being transmitted by Axis Embassies here.
- Not printed; it transmitted a translation of the decree of October 8.↩
- The Ambassador transmitted a copy in Spanish of the decree of December 2 with his despatch No. 7605 of December 4; received December 12.↩
- Sections 2 and 3 apparently consist of the entire telegram except first and last paragraphs.↩