Foreign Relations of the United States, Diplomatic Papers, 1942, The American Republics, Volume V

862.20210/2035

The Argentine Embassy to the Department of State

[Translation]

Memorandum

Reference is made to the speech delivered by Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles, on the 8th of this month, before the National Foreign Trade Council.

In that speech Mr. Sumner Welles made the following statements:⁴⁴

“Nor can we here in the United States ever fail to remember with profound gratitude and renewed encouragement that eleven of the other republics of the Americas are joined with us, side by side, in the war and that seven other republics have severed all relations with the Axis and are rendering their neighbors who are at war every form of cooperation and assistance. It is true that the remaining two republics of the twenty-one have still refrained from carrying out the unanimous recommendations of the Inter-American Conference of Río de Janeiro, in which they themselves joined, that all of the Americas sever all relations with the Axis, and are still permitting their territory to be utilized by the officials and the subversive agents of the Axis as a base for hostile activities against their neighbors. As a result of the reports on Allied ship movements sent by these agents, Brazilian, Cuban, Mexican, Colombian, Dominican, Uruguayan, Argentine, Chilean, Panamanian, and United States ships have been sunk without warning while plying between the American republics, and as a result many nationals of these countries have lost their lives within the waters of the Western Hemisphere. But I cannot believe that these two republics will continue long to permit their brothers and neighbors of the Americas, engaged as they are in a life-and-death struggle to preserve the liberties and the integrity of the New World, to be stabbed in the back by Axis emissaries operating in the territory and under the free institutions of these two republics of the Western Hemisphere.”

The Argentine Government, having been informed of the foregoing statements, has instructed its Ambassador in Washington to call on Mr. Welles for the following purposes:

(1) To state that the Argentine Government has learned with extreme displeasure of the statements made before the National Foreign Trade Council, which statements, because of their being in open contradiction to reality in the present state of our relations with the United States and other American countries, we cannot accept.

(2) To point out that such charges, which militate against the frank and definitive understanding that the Argentine Government would like to see established with the United States, are all the more regrettable in that they do not specify cases and merely involve affirmations made lightly in unprecise and general terms, which the Argentine Government must answer precisely in defense of its friendly sentiments and of the position which, in harmony with such sentiments, it intends to maintain.

(3) To declare that the matter of alleged espionage activities, denounced by Ambassador Armour in July in equally unprecise terms, was fully answered in the memorandum of July 8 to the Ambassador, which stated to him at the time, just as it is now repeated, that “the United States Government may be sure that the Argentine Government will not ignore any concrete denouncement made against it concerning the existence of centers of espionage or activity dangerous to hemispheric defense.” On that occasion a full account was given of the control measures adopted and of the expulsions carried out in the few concrete cases duly reported.

(4) To point out that it is inconceivable that Mr. Welles should thus have made a charge the inconsistency of which is evident from the most casual observation of the events in our country. As regards the sinking of merchant ships, it is sufficient to point out that those being sunk are either leaving our ports or arriving from foreign ports, and that the sinkings always occur at great distances from Argentine waters. Hence, it is difficult to understand how they can necessarily be attributed to the reports sent from Argentina.

(5) To point out that the statements in question are particularly inopportune at a time when the Argentine Government, gradually broadening the measures called for by the Río de Janeiro recommendations in so far as Argentina’s position and needs permit, has declared under State control all telecommunication enterprises, companies, and lines operating in the territory of the Republic, a measure adopted in a Ministers’ Resolution prior to Mr. Welles’ speech, considering “that the state of war in which various American countries find themselves and the commitments resulting from Pan American agreements signed by the Republic render it advisable to adopt the necessary measures to prevent the telecommunication system operating in national territory from being used to the detriment of the military interests of those countries.”

Washington , October 10, 1942.

44. For complete text of address, see Department of State Bulletin, October 10, 1942, p. 808.