740.00112A European War 1939/30594
The Under Secretary of State (Welles) to the Ambassador in Chile (Bowers)
My Dear Mr. Bowers: I have your letter of April 1927 concerning the discrepancy in the publicity that is given to the Proclaimed and Statutory Lists in Chile and the unfavorable effect which it has had. I have discussed this question with some of the officers in the Department and find that the general subject has been receiving their attention.
The British Ministry of Economic Warfare has indicated for some time its concern over the fact that in most of the countries in this hemisphere the British were, with respect to the published lists, in the position of being regarded as a mere rubber stamp. Additions to the Statutory List for South America appear several weeks after their inclusion in the Proclaimed List has been announced, and the British have complained that this puts them in the light of merely following the lead of the United States. They feel that this tends to make the local governments and the local population generally regard them and their list as of secondary importance. A majority of our missions have felt that there was no incumbency upon this government to take steps to alter this situation. Several of the missions have specifically requested that discussions with respect to economic warfare controls take place in the first instance exclusively between the American mission and the local governmental authorities and that the British point of view be reflected through discussions between the American and British missions.
Several of the missions have, however, commented upon the problem that you refer to and the question has been discussed with the British here. As a result of these discussions it is altogether probable that an arrangement will be agreed upon whereby the British will make an announcement concurrently with the publication of each supplement to the Proclaimed List that the Ministry of Economic Warfare is taking similar action in the forthcoming supplement to the Statutory List. This announcement will be released simultaneously with the release relating to the Proclaimed List supplement. This arrangement appears to be in line with one of the courses of action which you suggest and should solve a major part of the problem.
You mention in your letter that on several occasions the British have led persons on the Proclaimed List to believe that this government is exclusively responsible for their inclusion in the lists and have sympathized with them because of their predicament. I suggest that [Page 329] any instances of this nature that come to your attention be immediately taken up by you with your British colleague and if further instances should occur that they be reported to the Department. The British Embassy in the past has been cooperative in remedying activity by any of their missions that is out of line with the cooperative procedures in economic warfare that have been established.
Sincerely yours,
- Not printed.↩