The enclosed Memorandum has been discussed with Mr. Merwin L. Bohan,
Counselor of Embassy for Economic Affairs, on the occasion of Mr.
Bohan’s recent consultations with officers of the Department, and it is
understood that Mr. Bohan considers the Memorandum to be in harmony with
your views and plans for handling Proclaimed List questions and related
matters with the Argentine Government.
The Department has postponed making a reply to the Argentine Memorandum
for several reasons. First, aside from the general advisability of
waiting for some time to pass before making a reply to this particular
Memorandum, it seemed advisable to wait until there had been a full
opportunity for the Argentine Government to put into effect the
resolutions and recommendations adopted at the Meeting of Ministers of
Foreign Affairs at Rio de Janeiro in January 1942,11 and the Inter-American Conference on Systems
of Economic and Financial Control at Washington in July 1942,12 since the nature of this Government’s reply
would depend largely on what the Argentine Government was prepared to do
on these matters. Secondly, as time passed and it became apparent that
Argentina was not presently prepared to give effective implementation to
the Kio de Janeiro and Washington resolutions and recommendations, it
also became apparent that Chile was preparing to break relations with
the Axis powers and to establish effective control measures.13 Accordingly, it would have been unwise to present to
Argentina the type of reply which was called for at a time when it might
have been interpreted as being equally applicable to Chile. The
foregoing factors are now out of the way and we are in a position to
make a strong, forthright statement of the case as it applies to
Argentina alone. The Argentine Ambassador to the United States14 has recently
indicated that the Argentine Government is anticipating a reply to its
Memorandum and it, therefore, appears that this is the opportune time to
present this Government’s Memorandum.
The enclosed Memorandum has been prepared with a view to stating the case
for the Proclaimed List in a manner that would make the official record
strong and complete. The Memorandum has also been prepared with a view
to making it the type of statement on this matter [Page 314] which would be of a helpful nature if
it were subsequently to be made public in Argentina and throughout the
American republics.
If the Memorandum as drafted meets with your approval, please advise the
Department by telegram of the date when you propose to present it in
order that the Department may simultaneously present a copy to the
Argentine Ambassador here.14a
[Enclosure]
Memorandum
The Government of the United States of America has given careful
consideration to the views of the Argentine Government concerning
“The Proclaimed List of Certain Blocked Nationals” set forth by the
Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship in a Memorandum
dated June 8, 1942,15 transmitted to, and acknowledged by, the United
States Ambassador to the Argentine Republic.
The Proclaimed List was established by the United States Government
on July 17, 194116 as a measure of national defense following the
declaration of the existence of an unlimited national emergency by
proclamation of the President of the United States on May 27,
1941;17 since this country subsequently became a
belligerent in the current war as a result of Axis aggression
against the territory of the United States, the Proclaimed List has
been maintained as an integral part of this Government’s total war
effort. The Proclaimed List was established and is maintained solely
for the purpose of resisting and combatting the aggressions of the
Axis powers. It is common knowledge that the military aggression of
the Axis powers against this country and certain of the other
American republics was preceded and has been accompanied by a
systematic, organized, and insidious economic and political
aggression throughout this hemisphere. The only parallel in the
history of nations to the nature and scope of these activities of
pre-military aggression is the record of Axis penetration throughout
[Page 315] Asia, Europe and
Africa which served as a prelude and preparation for the military
aggression against which almost all of the civilized world now
stands united. The disastrous experience of the nations which have
been overrun by the Axis armies made it abundantly clear that it was
impossible, in fact it was suicidal, to temporize with these
pre-military acts of penetration and aggression.
It is unnecessary at this time to relate at length the detailed
nature of the subversive activities which the Axis powers carried
out in every country in this hemisphere under the guise of
maintaining peaceful and friendly relations. There is transmitted
herewith a document recently published by this Government entitled
“National Socialism—Basic Principles, Their Application By The Nazi
Party’s Foreign Organization, And The Use of Germans Abroad For Nazi
Aims”.18 It is believed that this document, which has been
prepared on the basis of thoroughly reliable source material, lays
bare the structure and methods of Nazi penetration abroad. The same
basic facts have been confirmed by first-hand investigations
conducted within various of the American republics by their duly
constituted authorities. In this connection reference is made to the
reports of the Investigating Committee of Anti-Argentine Activities
concerning certain aspects of Axis activities in Argentina.
Prior to the establishment of the Proclaimed List on July 17, 1941,
this Government had become fully aware that certain persons and
firms abroad were utilizing their commercial and financial relations
with the United States to support Axis propaganda and subversive
activities directed against the United States and the hemispheric
solidarity policies of the American republics. The American
republics collectively and individually took appropriate measures
from time to time prior to the meeting of the Foreign Ministers at
Rio de Janeiro in January 1942, to safeguard their collective and
individual interests against any external threat. In the view of
this Government it would have been unthinkable that, under the
circumstances, the United States should have done less at the time
than to prevent its citizens from giving direct or indirect aid and
comfort to persons and firms abroad who were contributing directly
or indirectly, voluntarily or involuntarily, to activities directed
against the security of this country and the hemispheric defense
policies to which all of the American republics were pledged. The
establishment of the Proclaimed List was the only proper and
effective means available to this Government to control commercial
and financial transactions on the part of its citizens which were
deemed inimical to the security of the nation and its foreign
policies.
[Page 316]
In this connection it is appropriate to take note of the reference in
the Argentine Government’s Memorandum to the fact that the United
States Government on July 16 [26?] 1916
presented a note to the British Government19 setting forth this Government’s then views
concerning the action of the British Government in publishing a
so-called “black list”. Reference is also made in the Argentine
Government’s Memorandum to the fact that the Argentine Government
had also on May 11, 1916 expressed to the British Government its
opposition to the British “black list”. It is necessary and fitting
to recall that in April 1917 the United States Government became a
belligerent against Germany20 and in October 1917 this Government published
its “Trading With the Enemy List”, which list was maintained
throughout the World War on substantially the same basis as the
Proclaimed List has been maintained in this conflict. It may be
noted in this connection that there is no record of the then
Argentine Government having registered objection with the United
States Government to the establishment of the Trading With the Enemy
List, a measure which this Government then found necessary in
defense of its national existence.
The non-military warfare activities of the Imperial German Government
which necessitated this Government’s Trading With the Enemy List in
1917 were serious enough, but those activities were as nothing, in
character or scope, as compared with the subversive, “fifth-column”
activities of the Nazi regime. Since its inception the Nazi German
Government has sought to organize and direct the lives and business
activities of its nationals and supporters abroad to the single
purpose of Nazi world domination. In 1941, as contrasted with 1916,
this hemisphere was faced with the menace of an Axis “fifth column”
which was largely supported from the participation of pro-Axis
enterprises in friendly inter-American trade. Full recognition of
the nature of this unprecedented threat to the security of the
nations of this hemisphere is found in the resolutions and
recommendations unanimously adopted by the twenty-one American
republics at the Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs at Rio
de Janeiro in January 1942 and the Inter-American Conference on
Systems of Economic and Financial Control at Washington in July
1942. Assuming that such measures as the so-called “black lists”
were properly subject to question under 1916 conditions, this
Government believes there cannot be the slightest doubt concerning
the absolute necessity and justification for such measures of
self-defense under current conditions. Today the heart of the matter
is to prevent the fires of Hitlerism in this hemisphere from being
fed with our own resources.
[Page 317]
This Government desires to re-emphasize that the Proclaimed List and
the controls underlying it operate solely as regulations applicable
to persons subject to the jurisdiction and laws of the United
States. The primary purpose and effect of this regulatory action
being to prohibit United States citizens from engaging in commercial
or financial transactions deemed detrimental to the National
security of their country, there can be no question of infringing
the rights of Argentine citizens or the laws and constitution of the
Argentine Republic.
The Proclaimed List is only one of many national defense and wartime
regulations which this Government found it necessary to establish in
the current emergency. Many of these measures necessarily limit the
commercial and financial transactions of United States citizens at
home as well as their transactions with persons and firms abroad.
The United States Government fully recognizes that many of these
emergency measures limit the full operation of “the liberal
principles of international trade for peaceful purposes” referred to
in the Argentine Government’s Memorandum. This Government welcomes
this opportunity to express its recognition of this regrettable
condition, and also to reaffirm its resolute determination to adhere
to these principles not only after peaceful conditions have been
re-established in the world, but also throughout the war to the full
extent that this may be practicable in the light of the overriding
exigencies of the war emergency. Such departure from these
principles as may be required by the necessities of war are a
reflection of the inconsistencies between war and peaceful
conditions rather than any inconsistency in this Government’s
commercial policy. In this connection it is appropriate to refer to
the fact that the Trade Agreement signed by our two countries
October 14, 194121 gives explicit recognition in
Article IV to the right of either Government “to adopt such measures
as it may deem necessary for the protection of its essential
interests in time of war or other national emergency”.
In addition to the primary considerations stated above which led to
the establishment of the Proclaimed List, other important
considerations were involved. Even prior to the proclamation by the
President of the United States of an unlimited national emergency on
May 27, 1941, this country was engaged in the development of a
comprehensive national defense program, and after the declaration of
an unlimited national emergency following the serious development of
events abroad with the further extension of Axis aggressions, this
country’s national defense program was greatly accelerated and
extended. This program drew heavily on the productive resources of
this country and as a result there developed a serious shortage in
goods [Page 318] and products which
were normally available for export to the American republics.
Serious as this shortage was at that time, it was realized that the
situation was certain to become worse. There is no need to describe
the critical situation which has since developed due to acute
shipping and supply shortages. Throughout this period of increasing
difficulties this Government, pursuant to its policy of sharing all
goods available for home consumption on an equitable basis with the
peoples of the American republics, has striven unceasingly to make
the fullest possible measure of essential goods available for export
to the American republics. The problem has been made increasingly
acute by the need for meeting this Government’s high responsibility
to furnish essential defense products to the other American
republics which have assumed heavy national and hemisphere defense
responsibilities in connection with their fulfillment of the
resolutions unanimously adopted by the meeting of the Ministers of
Foreign Affairs of the twenty-one American republics at Rio de
Janeiro in January 1942. In view of these acute shortages the
situation is such, and has been so for some time, that the export of
almost every item from the United States represents a domestic
sacrifice in this country, and despite these efforts and sacrifices
to share our supplies, the inadequacy of our exports for the
American republics is such that many of our friends in the American
republics are bearing substantial hardships. The people of the
United States and our staunch friends throughout the American
republics are willing and glad to accept these sacrifices and
hardships in the spirit of mutual sacrifice and assistance, but they
could not and should not be expected to accept the same sacrifices
and hardships to the end of sharing such short supplies and
facilities with persons and firms who are actively aiding and
abetting the Axis cause and thereby supporting the forces against
which our people and the people of certain of the other American
republics are fighting.
The only effective and fair means by which this country’s
increasingly short supplies and shipping facilities could be
reserved for friendly persons and firms and withheld from pro-Axis
elements was through the establishment of an official, published
list of firms and persons abroad with whom United States citizens
were not permitted to deal, except under license granted by the
appropriate United States authorities. Thus, in a very real sense,
the Proclaimed List has facilitated the movement of such goods as
are available for export, reserved those goods for loyal friends,
and thereby furnished a basis for common sacrifice by assuring the
people of this country and of the other American republics that
these short supplies were being shared with friends and not with
their enemies.
[Page 319]
This Government fully recognizes the rigorous consequences which may
result to persons and firms included in the Proclaimed List and our
persistent concern has been that, so far as possible, these
consequences should fall solely on persons or firms who are directly
or indirectly identified with or giving assistance to pro-Axis
elements or activities. To this end this Government has endeavored
to be scrupulously careful and fair in reaching decisions on the
inclusion and removal of names on the Proclaimed List. Under the
President’s proclamation of July 17, 1941, establishing The
Proclaimed List of Certain Blocked Nationals, no name may be added
to or removed from the List without the unanimous approval of six
governmental departments and agencies, viz: the Department of State,
the Treasury Department, the Department of Justice, the Department
of Commerce, the Board of Economic Warfare, and the Coordinator of
Inter-American Affairs. Every case is considered by these agencies
on the basis of all available information and no action is taken on
any case unless the reliability of the information has been vouched
for by an official agency of this Government.
The Proclaimed List has never been used and this Government will not
permit it to be used, directly or indirectly, as a measure for
influencing trade activities or opportunities, either private or
national, except for emergency defense and warfare purposes. It is
solely an emergency defense measure. In considering cases for
inclusion in the List the sole criterion is whether the person or
firm in question is identified with, or has been given direct or
indirect assistance to pro-Axis elements or activities. It should be
emphasized that persons have never been included in the Proclaimed
List merely because of their German or Italian nationality or
extraction. As has been recognized by the United States Government
in according generally to Italians resident in the United States the
status of non-enemy aliens and as the Argentine Government is of
course aware, there are numerous persons of Italian and some of
German nationality or extraction residing throughout the American
republics who have consistently and sincerely refused to have
anything whatsoever to do with pro-Axis elements or activities.
These people have nothing to fear from the Proclaimed List. On the
other hand there are certain persons and firms who while not
themselves directly identified with Axis propaganda and subversive
activities nevertheless contribute directly or indirectly to the
support of such activities by acting as “cloaks” for pro-Axis
persons and firms in effecting commercial and financial
transactions. With respect to such persons, it must be made clear
that while this Government, pursuant to its fixed policy of
non-intervention in the internal affairs of other countries and of
respect for the sovereignty of other nations, scrupulously respects
the right of such persons to deal [Page 320] with whomever they choose, this Government in turn
must and does exercise its sovereign rights and responsibilities in
determining whether under existing conditions it can permit its
citizens to trade with persons and firms abroad who, for their own
reasons, choose to traffic with and thereby assist our enemies in
their avowed purpose of destroying this nation and the democratic
principles on which it stands. A nation which respects the rights of
others because it respects its own responsibilities and rights
cannot permit its trade to jeopardize indirectly the victory which
it is at the same time asking its citizens to achieve with their
very lives.
This Government has not been slow to correct the inevitable mistakes
which occur in an undertaking such as the Proclaimed List. Likewise
this Government has been ready and anxious to reconsider any case
where the reasons which led to inclusion in the Proclaimed List have
been sincerely and effectively corrected or eliminated by the
persons or firms concerned. It is a matter of considerable
satisfaction that the great majority of cases which have been
removed from the List have been of the latter category where the
action was based on appropriate corrective measures having been
voluntarily taken by the parties involved. This Government desires
to emphasize that it has been and will be ready and anxious to
receive through any appropriate and responsible channel any
information which indicates that a name has either been mistakenly
included in the List or should be considered for removal because of
corrective measures having been subsequently taken to eliminate the
conditions which led to inclusion in the List. As the Memorandum of
the Argentine Government has pointed out, the administration of an
undertaking such as the Proclaimed List is a hard and unpleasant
task, but this is unfortunately true of most of the measures which
free peoples have to take to protect their lives and freedom against
the infinitely harder and more unpleasant measures which the Axis
powers have sought to impose on them.
The Government of the United States has taken particular note of the
suggestion in the Argentine Government’s Memorandum that the United
States Government would be gratified to be relieved of the task of
maintaining the Proclaimed List. In this connection the Argentine
Government’s Memorandum further remarked as follows:
“Who could be better placed than the Argentine Government
itself to know whether such and such a firm established in
the country affects through its activities the interests of
continental defense? The Argentine Government is the most
interested party in ascertaining this; it is the one which
has in its hands the legal and other instruments necessary
to repress such activities.”
The United States Government sincerely welcomes this
statement of the Argentine Government’s position as it has welcomed
all measures [Page 321] in
furtherance of the vital task of securing the hemisphere from
internal or external threats. This Government has no desire to
continue the Proclaimed List or any other emergency measure in
effect one day longer than the impelling necessities of the
situation require. In the same friendly spirit that the Argentine
Government has presented this matter, this Government is impelled to
refer frankly to the continued existence of circumstances which
render it impossible for this Government to relax at present such
emergency measures as the Proclaimed List. It is common knowledge
that in June 1942, the time when the Argentine Government’s
Memorandum was presented, Axis and pro-Axis commercial, financial,
and other enterprises were operating extensively and freely in
Argentina. Today the situation is not materially altered despite the
Argentine Government’s adherence, along with the other twenty
American republics, to the specific proposals formulated at the
Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs at Rio de Janeiro in January
1942, and the subsequent Inter-American Conference on Systems of
Economic and Financial Control at Washington in July 1942, for
dealing with this problem throughout the hemisphere. The United
States Government cannot believe that the Argentine Government is
unmindful of the relationship which has been revealed in all
countries between such pro-Axis commercial and financial enterprises
and the furtherance, both openly and covertly, of Axis propaganda
and other forms of subversive activity which in this hemisphere is
directed against the independence and security of the American
republics.
It is not the purpose of this Memorandum, and it would not be
possible within its scope, to set forth the detailed record of
pro-Axis activities and affiliations of particular commercial,
financial and other enterprises within Argentina. It will be
sufficient for purposes of illustration, and it is the painful duty
of this Government to refer to one of the venomous pro-Axis
propaganda enterprises which has operated in Buenos Aires throughout
the period under discussion. In April 1942, several months before
the presentation of the Argentine Government’s memorandum, the
United States Ambassador to Argentina had occasion personally and
informally to invite the attention of the Argentine Minister of
Foreign Affairs and Worship to the publication in Buenos Aires of a
magazine entitled Clarinada which contained
scurrilous and revolting pro-Axis attacks upon the President of the
United States of America and upon this country. The publication of
itself might conceivably be regarded as not worthy of attention were
it not for the fact that it also regularly carries full-page
advertisements of Argentine governmental and semi-governmental
agencies and institutions. Whether or not such advertisements were
originally authorized by responsible officers of the agencies and
institutions involved, [Page 322] the
fact is that such advertisements are used by this publication in an
effort to give it respectable status in the eyes of readers in
Argentina and elsewhere and the long continued existence of the
situation has been known to responsible officials of the Argentine
Government. The July 1941 issue of Clarinada
included prominent advertisements of El Banco De La Provincia De
Buenos Aires; the Ministerio Del Interior, Caja Nacional de Ahorra
Postal; the Banco de la Nación Argentina; El Banco Municipal; and
the Y.P.F. Such advertisements of the Banco de la Nación Argentina;
El Banco De La Provincia De Buenos Aires and El Banco Municipal
continued to appear monthly in this publication more than a year
thereafter. The full-page advertisement of the Ministerio Del
Interior, Caja Nacional de Ahorro Postal appeared as late as
December 1942, and the same issue included similar advertisements of
El Banco De La Provincia De Buenos Aires; the Banco Hipotecario
Nacional; and El Banco Municipal.
In June 1942, at the time the Argentine Government’s Memorandum
concerning the Proclaimed List was presented, Clarinada was flaunting its pro-Axis policy of
international defamation and the magazine was carrying
advertisements of the Banco de la Nación Argentina; El Banco De La
Provincia De Buenos Aires and El Banco Municipal. This publication
continued to carry such advertisements in subsequent months and in
October 1942 it was included on the Proclaimed List by this
Government. Photostatic copies of certain of the pictorial displays
and of the advertisements of these Argentine governmental and
semi-governmental institutions which appeared in this magazine are
attached.22
Manifestly, this lamentable situation presented no question
involving the freedom of the press. Needless to state this
Government would much prefer that it should not be necessary for it
as a matter of self-defense or self-respect to take Proclaimed List
action in situations of this type or in the case of pro-Axis
commercial and financial enterprises where this country’s and the
hemisphere’s defense interests are even more vitally, if less
flagrantly, offended against.
In this same connection note has been taken of the suggestions made
in the Argentine Government’s Memorandum that: “The numerous
measures adopted in the Pan American Conferences make it possible to
establish a system of reciprocal collaboration making the system of
black lists unnecessary”, and more specifically “that a Committee
situated in Buenos Aires be constituted, formed by representatives
of the Argentine Government, Commerce, Banks and Industry. The
mission of this Committee would be to examine in each case and in
the light of Pan American resolutions and agreements, whether
certain [Page 323] commercial firms
could cause prejudice or not to the security of the countries to the
Continent.”
The United States Government, as has been stated above, would
sincerely welcome the development of a “system of reciprocal
collaboration” which would make the maintenance of “the system of
black lists unnecessary”. Whether in view of the complex and
technical nature of the problem it would be practicable to develop
such a system as would make it possible to eliminate the use of such
techniques of control entirely may be doubtful, but there is no
doubt in the opinion of this Government that through the process of
consultation between like-minded governments with the same
determined objectives, measures can be taken which will permit
modifications of the so-called “black list system” and adjust and
accommodate the operation of the system to the respective interests
and common objectives of the countries concerned.
It was the high hope and expectation of this Government—an
expectation which is now in process of realization with most of the
other American republics—that such a development would be made
possible as a result of actions taken by the respective Governments
of the American republics pursuant to the comprehensive policies and
proposals adopted unanimously by all of the Governments of the
Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs at Rio de Janeiro in January
1942, and the Inter-American Conference on Systems of Economic and
Financial Control at Washington in July 1942. This Government
sincerely welcomed this opportunity to develop consultative
procedures on these matters with the respective Governments of the
American republics which have taken action in fulfillment of the
resolutions adopted by all of the American republics at the
aforesaid inter-American meetings. This opportunity was welcomed for
several reasons. In the first place, such consultative arrangements
on specific problems are, as the Argentine Government’s Memorandum
recognizes, in harmony with and further strengthen the principle of
consultation which is one of the primary tenets of Inter-American
cooperation and of this Government’s foreign policy. Secondly, this
Government fully recognizes that emergency measures such as the
Proclaimed List which operate principally with respect to this
country’s foreign trade and financial transactions have definite
effects abroad and are therefore matters which, so far as
practicable, should be the subject of mutual adjustment between good
neighbors. Thirdly, the opportunity to establish consultative
procedures concerning Proclaimed List matters on the basis of
effective action taken by the other interested Government in
fulfillment of the aforesaid inter-American resolutions afforded a
solid basis on which to develop a more effective control over or
elimination of inimical pro-Axis elements and activities—the [Page 324] common objective of the
respective Governments—than could be achieved by either Government
singly.
This Government believes that the resolutions unanimously adopted
last year by all of the American republics at the inter-American
meetings held at Rio de Janeiro and Washington, if effectively
fulfilled by the respective Governments, already afford a
satisfactory basis on which individual measures such as the
Proclaimed List can, through a process of consultation between the
respective Governments, be adjusted and accommodated both to the
particular domestic interests of those Governments and to the more
effective realization of the primary, common objective of all of the
American republics to render this hemisphere secure from either
external or internal threat by the forces of aggression. The
necessity for establishing such a basis for consultation on the
operation of the Proclaimed List is apparent when it is recognized
that in order to make the consultations fruitful this Government
must be able to forego Proclaimed List action on particular cases or
to remove cases from the Proclaimed List on the basis of effective
action taken by the other Government to correct or eliminate the
conditions which would otherwise require Proclaimed List action.
Such action by the other Government concerned frequently involves a.
complete reorganization of the enterprise or of its transfer to
friendly interests and the blocking of the proceeds accruing to Axis
or pro-Axis persons as a result of such reorganization or transfer.
This Government’s experience with consultative arrangements on
Proclaimed List matters has proven that such arrangements are highly
successful and productive of the results desired by both Governments
only when such a basis for alternative and equally effective action
has been established by the other Government as envisaged in the
resolutions adopted by the American republics at the Rio de Janeiro
and Washington Conferences.
The Government of the United States of America feels confident that
the Government of the Argentine Republic will sympathetically
understand the view of a country which is now engaged in a life and
death struggle for its survival and for the survival of the same
freedoms so highly cherished by the Argentine people, that
collaboration on matters such as those discussed in this memorandum
can be made fully effective only if the requisite basis for
collaboration in this field is first established by the other
Government concerned. As stated above, this Government believes that
the inter-American resolutions referred to, if fulfilled, furnish
such a requisite basis for the desired collaboration.
The Government of the United States, both in its own interest and in
the common interest of all of the American republics in the
furtherance of hemispheric unity and impregnability, sincerely hopes
that [Page 325] the requisite basis
for such full and effective collaboration in these masters may be
established in the near future and when it is, this Government will
not be slow, on its part, in extending the fullest measure of
cooperation.