810.74/899

The American Ambassador in Argentina (Armour) to the Argentine Minister for Foreign Affairs (Ruiz Guiñazú)28

Aide Mémoire

The Ambassador of the United States of America refers to the Embassy’s memorandum of December 11, 1942,29 containing certain observations relative to the recent Decree of the Argentine Government restricting radio communications in code between Argentina and non-American countries and, in compliance with instructions received from his Government, has the honor to state as follows:

The Government of the United States cannot agree to the participation by United States interests in the rendering to the Axis powers of services which enable those powers to destroy personnel and shipping of the United States and of the nations allied with the United States. The United States Government therefore proposes to instruct the United States interests in Transradio International to concert with the British interests in that company with a view to terminating the transmission of all messages to or from non-American countries in secret language. The Government of the United States feels free, [Page 515] in the spirit of the Resolutions adopted at Rio de Janeiro, to invoke the sympathetic understanding of the Argentine Government for the position in which the above mentioned United States interests find themselves, and to solicit the agreement of the Argentine Government to this measure for the common defense of all the American Republics.

  1. Handed to the Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs on January 15, 1943. Copy transmitted to the Department by the Ambassador in his despatch No. 8277, January 21, p. 516.
  2. Foreign Relations, 1942, vol. v, p. 179.