Office of the Historian

352.0022/60: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Chargé in Chile (Trueblood)
Washington, June 20, 1939—7 p.m.

94. Your 110, June 17, noon. As the result of a conversation held with the Chilean Ambassador this morning, the following instructions have been sent to the American Ambassador in Spain.

[Here follows text of telegram No. 36, June 20, 1939, 7 p.m., to the Ambassador in Spain, printed supra.]

The Ambassador made no reference to any desire on the part of his Government that the Government of the United States support the Chilean initiative through the intermediary of its missions in the other American republics. You may inform the Foreign Office orally of the substance of the instructions sent to the American Ambassador to Spain and advise the Foreign Office, with regard to the second sentence in the memorandum given you by the Foreign Office as quoted in your telegram under reference, that inasmuch as the Government of the United States has consistently refused to adopt the policy with regard to the giving of refuge to political refugees in diplomatic missions which has been followed by many of the other American republics, and as was officially made known by the Government of the United States at both the Habana and Montevideo Conferences,57 [Page 782] this Government is unable, much to its regret, to comply with the request made by the Chilean Government that it support the initiative of the latter through the missions of the United States in the other American republics. You may state that this Government greatly appreciates the friendly courtesy shown it by the Chilean Government with regard to this question, but that it cannot now officially support a policy which it has itself over a period of many years refused to adopt.

Hull
  1. For correspondence concerning the Sixth International Conference of American States, held at Habana, January 16–February 20, 1928, see Foreign Relations, 1928, vol. i, pp. 527 ff. For correspondence concerning the Seventh International Conference of American States, held at Montevideo, December 3–26, 1933, see ibid., 1933, vol. iv, pp. 1 ff.↩