740.00112A European War 1939/13480

The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Argentina ( Armour )

No. 3991

Sir: Reference is made to the Embassy’s despatch no. 5493 of June 18, 1942, transmitting a Memorandum, dated June 8, 1942,10 submitted by the Argentine Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship concerning the Argentine Government’s views on “The Proclaimed List of Certain Blocked Nationals”. There is enclosed a draft reply to this Memorandum which, if approved by you, the Department desires you to present to the Argentine Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship. There are also enclosed two sets of the accompanying documents referred to in the Memorandum, one set of which should be presented to the Argentine Government as attachments to the Memorandum.

[Page 313]

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

Very truly yours,

Sumner Welles
[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.

  1. Neither printed.
  2. Third Meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the American Republics, held at Rio de Janeiro, January 15–28, 1942. For text of Final Act including resolutions and recommendations, see Department of State Bulletin, February 7, 1942, pp. 117–141; for correspondence, see Foreign Relations, 1942, vol. v, pp. 6 ff.
  3. Held at Washington, June 30–July 10, 1942. For texts of resolutions, see Pan American Union, Congress and Conference Series No. 39: Final Act of the Inter-American Conference on Systems of Economic and Financial Control (Washington, 1942); for comment on resolutions, see Foreign Relations, 1942, vol. v, pp. 58 ff.
  4. The Chilean Government severed diplomatic relations with the Axis Powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan) on January 20, 1943, Department of State Bulletin, January 23, 1943, p. 83; for correspondence, see post, pp. 795 ff.
  5. Felipe A. Espil.
  6. In telegram 708, April 2, 1943, 4 p.m., from Buenos Aires, Ambassador Armour reported: “Memorandum will be delivered April 3. No changes were considered necessary in this most excellent exposé of the reasons for the issuance of the Proclaimed List.” (740.00112A European War 1939/28103)

    On April 8, 1943, Assistant Secretary of State Acheson handed a copy of the reply to the Argentine Ambassador to whom, Mr. Acheson noted in his memorandum of conversation dated April 8, 1943, the subject was obviously one which was unpleasant “and I gathered that he had hoped no reply would be made. He readily acquiesced, however, when I pointed out that the note could not be left unanswered and that there were matters raised in it which had to be clarified upon the record.” (740.00112A European War 1939/28746)

  7. Not printed.
  8. 55 Stat. (pt. 2) 1657.
  9. 55 Stat. (pt. 2) 1647.
  10. Department of State publication No. 1804 (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1943).
  11. Foreign Relations, 1916, supp., p. 421.
  12. April 6, 1917; see ibid., 1917, supp. 1, p. 207.
  13. For text of the Agreement, see 56 Stat. (pt. 2) 1685; for correspondence, see Foreign Relations, 1941, vol. vi, pp. 387 ff.
  14. Not reproduced.