862.20210/2056
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
The Argentine Ambassador called to see me this evening at my request. I handed the Ambassador the aide-mémoire71 to which was attached the memorandum72 covering Axis subversive activities in Argentina. I asked the Ambassador to read the covering aide-mémoire, which I told him was similar to the aide-mémoire transmitting the same memorandum as that now handed the Ambassador which Ambassador Armour had last night, in Buenos Aires, delivered to the Argentine Foreign Minister.
The Ambassador read the covering aide-mémoire and said he would immediately study the enclosure.
Dr. Espil stated that he felt the step taken by this Government was in the highest degree desirable. He said he was only sorry that this step had not been taken a long time ago.
I reminded the Ambassador that during the first days of July Ambassador Armour had informed the Argentine Foreign Minister that this Government was aware in the most detailed manner of Axis activities detrimental to the vital defense interests of the other American Republics which were going on within Argentina and that at that time the Argentine Government had taken practically no steps whatever to do anything to correct this situation. I said that if, under similar conditions, the Argentine Government had communicated a message of that importance to this Government, I did not believe the Ambassador could conceive of this Government refusing to take any action whatever.
I said there was no use of mincing words with regard to the position of the present Argentine Government. It was constantly giving lip service to the principles of the Good Neighbor Policy and to the ideal of inter-American solidarity, and yet, at the same time, it was not only permitting a desperately serious situation of the kind now complained of to continue, but it had also, to all intents and purposes, refrained from any practical implementation of the definite commitments which the Argentine Government made at the Río de Janeiro conference. I said that so long as the Argentine Government refused to comply with this official obligation to eliminate all means of telecommunication between the Axis agents in Argentina and the outside world, just so long would this most serious aspect of danger to which this Government was referring continue to exist in Argentine territory.
[Page 234]The Ambassador spoke for a while with regard to domestic developments in Argentina. He asked if the Department had any particular information concerning recent political developments and I said that all of the information which we had was covered very fully in newspaper articles which had appeared during the past few days.
The Ambassador stated at the conclusion of our talk that his own position had become almost intolerable and that he hoped earnestly that the document now communicated to the Argentine Government would not be made public if the Argentine Government took effective and prompt steps to correct the situation complained of. He said that publication of a document of this character could only increase bad feeling against Argentina within the United States and within the other American Republics. I replied that I could make no commitment of any kind on that point. I said that as the Ambassador and I both must frankly admit, the situation was not one created by the United States or by any other American Republic, but was solely a result of the failure of the Argentine Government to live up to its inter-American agreements and that the question of publication or non-publication of this document must therefore be left open.