711.35/3–3147
The Ambassador in Argentina (Messersmith) to the Secretary of State
No. 2119
Sir: I have the honor to make the following report on a conversation which I had some days ago with the Foreign Minister, Dr. Bramuglia, on Wednesday evening, March 19, 1947, in the Foreign Office. I had asked for a conversation with the Minister in order to receive from him the latest information with regard to the activities of the Argentine Government in the matter of enemy aliens.…
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The Minister then went on to say that they had taken action in the field of schools and institutions not on the basis of what other countries had done in this hemisphere but on the basis of what should be done for safety and security. They had carried through this action [Page 184] in the fields of Axis schools and institutions as adequately as that taken in any of the American republics if not more adequately than in most of them. Whatever step had been necessary in this field, they had already taken and carried through and as I knew they were watchful of any activity which anyone might attempt in this field.
In the field of enemy property, the Minister said that they had taken the appropriate and adequate action. I knew of the difficulties which had been in the way and with which the Government had had to deal and that I had been and was in a position, as were the other Chiefs of Mission of the American republics, to see the action which the Argentine Government was taking with respect to enemy property. To resolve the problem and to clear away certain difficulties, the Government had accelerated the solution of enemy property through the decree of January 1947 through which the Government took over all enemy property in the Argentine. He said that his Government was familiar with what had been done elsewhere in the matter of enemy property and there was not a question of making any comparisons because each state was responsible for its action but that there was no doubt that the Argentine Government had carried through completely adequate action in the field of enemy property, had met its commitments under the Mexico City agreements and that he believed that any objective study of the situation would show that the Argentine had presently gone further than any of the American countries except the United States and Canada and that in many respects under similar programs had gone as far in the actual liquidation or reorganization, or elimination as we.
There remained only this matter of enemy aliens, and I must be familiar from my own observation and from the constant contact which I had had with the President and him and high officials of the Argentine Government and which the officers of this Embassy and of the British Embassy had had with the appropriate officials of the Argentine Government that they had been and were doing everything they could in this field since the present administration took office in June 1946. I was familiar with what the Argentine Government had done prior to the last decree of 1946 covering 52 enemy aliens. He was sure that my Government was familiar with what had been done in this field up to the time of the issuance of that decree, and he thought that the record was more impressive than they had been given credit for by the press. He said that the Argentine Government had carefully examined all the lists of names submitted by this Embassy and the British Embassy which included over 600 names. These lists had been submitted by this Embassy and by the British Embassy as covering the names of those persons concerning whom we had any information [Page 185] whatever, and the Argentine Government appreciated this collaboration as on the basis of it they had been able to make further investigations of their own. He stated that the Argentine Government had not been content with merely basing its investigation on the information given by the British Embassy and ourselves but had engaged in its own independent investigations which had covered many persons not on our lists.
In order to clear this matter up definitely, appropriate officials of the Argentine Government, as I knew, had examined all the names covered by our lists and the British and their own, and they had found that of all the persons against whom any information could be established as having committed acts against the state or the United Nations, there remained only 52 against whom appropriate action had not been taken. He observed that in examining these lists they had erred on the side of being too exigent rather than otherwise and that the last list of 52 included all remaining persons against whom there was any information in any way adequate to justify deportation.
He said that they had, therefore, issued deportation decrees against these 52 persons, and he recalled to me that he had in confidence informed me of the extraordinary steps which were taken by the police to make sure that all of these 52 were apprehended. Special squads had been organized in order to take immediate action against all 52. In spite of these extraordinary steps, information had undoubtedly leaked out and it was only possible to apprehend at the outset a certain number of them. They had prepared an Argentine ship to take them out of the country immediately to Germany in order to avoid possibility of writs of habeas corpus being granted by unfriendly courts but in spite of this of the number that they had secured a certain number were able to secure writs of habeas corpus before the S. S. Pampa left so that only 13 of the 52 were actually deported and were now in Germany.
He said that since the departure of the Pampa, the activities of the police had been redoubled and every possible effort had been and was being made to find these men. He said that in addition to the activities of the police in the capital and throughout the country, the facilities of the Army were being used where there were posts and special squads had been organized to go to parts of the country where it was felt that the most complete collaboration of the local police might not be given. He said that he could inform me in confidence that they now had eight whom they were ready to send out. Among them was Harnisch and several other really important ones. They were making every conceivable effort to get the rest. They were spending thousands of pesos every day in this search. They were somewhat discouraged because [Page 186] in spite of their best efforts, they had not yet been able to get all of these people.
He went on to say that there was no doubt in his opinion and that of high Argentine officials that some of these men had been able to get to the south of Chile where they were being harbored among the thousands of Germans there. He said that others may have got to Bolivia or Paraguay and probably some others to the south of Brazil where there are so many Germans among whom they could merge their identity. They were carrying on their efforts in spite of their discouragement because they realized that the Government must make every effort to get these people but that there were such, what now appeared to be, insuperable difficulties.
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Respectfully yours,