Office of the Historian

625.5131/111: Telegram

The Ambassador in Chile (Bowers) to the Secretary of State

Santiago, May 29, 1943—3 p.m.
[Received 5:12 p.m.]

967. As a result of the break in diplomatic and consular relations with Vichy France, the Chilean customs authorities are proposing to levy increased duties on imports from the United States and Great Britain on the theory that the effect of the break is to terminate the trade convention with France36 and thus to affect the most favored [Page 811] nation treatment accorded to the United States and Great Britain. We are taking the view that the convention is not terminated by the rupture, but should appreciate instructions from the Department in this connection.

Bowers
  1. Signed at Santiago, January 16, 1936, and ratified by Chile, February 9, 1938; see Chile, Diario Oficial, February 11, 1938, p. 350.↩