701.9425/52: Telegram
The Ambassador in Chile (Bowers) to the Secretary of State
[Received 4:44 p.m.]
205. Chilean Government last night placed Japanese Minister and all Japanese diplomatic personnel in detention under police guard, in residence of Japanese mission from which radio receiver was removed and telephone line severed. Chancery of Japanese Legation was closed and also placed under police guard. Previous to taking this action police searched chancery where Legation personnel was apprehended burning documents. Search of Legation produced little or no information of value I understand. Chilean Government’s decision to detain, in effect incommunicado, Japanese diplomats was based on reported humiliating treatment of Chilean official personnel in Japan by the Government of that country.
Yesterday secret police raided and indefinitely closed the German club in Santiago. Raid was made on information that a clandestine radio was being operated on premises but no transmitter was found.
Pursuant to decree numeral 2 my telegram 182, January 28, 1 p.m.,22 the Director General of Posts and Telegraphs yesterday cancelled the authorizations of Ernesto Samhaber Marzell, correspondent of Axis newspaper, Deutscher Verlag, Transocean, Stefani Mundial, Agencia Noticiosa Alemana (DNB) and Hans North Amannezeiss23 to transmit press despatches abroad and in Chile. As this action does not prohibit Transocean and Stefani, which have their own radio receivers, from receiving news from abroad I am suggesting to the appropriate authorities that the use of this equipment be prohibited immediately.
A decree suspending the granting of Chilean citizenship, except in special cases, to Axis nationals was signed yesterday by the Minister of Interior. This decree probably will be promulgated Monday next.