840.51 Frozen Credits/10824
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in El Salvador (Thurston)
Sir: The Department has received your despatch No. 498, June 26, 1943 in which you describe a conversation which you had with the President of El Salvador and other Salvadoran officials with regard to the possibility of the liquidation, pursuant to proposed Salvadoran legislative action, of Axis interests on the Proclaimed List.
The Department is gratified to note that you were careful to state to the President that the amendment of the Salvadoran Constitution is a matter to which the Embassy could not be a party. The Department considers that questions of the amendment and interpretation of the Salvadoran Constitution are internal matters regarding which this Government and its officials should under no circumstances express an opinion. While the Department wishes to see the Washington and Río de Janeiro economic warfare resolutions45 implemented by appropriate legislation in the respective American Republics, and wishes those Republics which have hitherto failed to enact such legislation to be discreetly urged by our missions to do so, it does not wish United [Page 328] States officials to insist upon the enactment of specific legislative provisions. Moreover, in view of the satisfactory progress which has been made in the development of economic warfare controls in El Salvador, there does not appear to be any pressing practical necessity for such insistence. The foregoing, of course, is not intended to interfere with the excellent informal cooperation and consultation with Salvadoran officials which has been mutually sought, concerning the administration of the Salvadoran controls now in effect.
You are requested to bring the Department’s instructions to the attention of the members of the Embassy staff.
Very truly yours,
- For text of the resolutions of the Conference held at Washington June 30–July 10, 1942, 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 correspondence concerning this Conference, see Foreign Relations, 1942, vol. v, pp. 58 ff. For text of the resolutions of the Third Meeting of Foreign Ministers of the American Republics, held at Río de Janeiro, January 15–28, 1942, see Department of State Bulletin, February 7, 1942, pp. 117–141. For correspondence concerning this Conference, see Foreign Relations, 1942, vol. v, pp. 6 ff.↩