740.0011 European War 1939/28923: Telegram
The Ambassador in Bolwia (Boal) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 10—12:29 a.m.]
675. In view of the issuance of a decree placing Bolivia in a state of war with the Axis I took special occasion to offer the Minister for Foreign Affairs the full cooperation of our Government commenting incidentally that the first obligations of our Government were of course to the fighting fronts.
In detail I offered him cooperation in the apprehension and transportation of dangerous enemy aliens mentioning that Mr. Ickes,33 an expert in this field who was recently in La Paz, had in cooperation with officers of the Embassy compiled a list of over 150 enemy aliens believed to be dangerous; I likewise mentioned that our Government is prepared to pay the transportation costs from La Paz for any or all of these dangerous aliens or others that may be decided to be dangerous. [Page 546] Full cooperation was likewise offered to the Foreign Minister in the preparation of a possible Bolivian Proclaimed List and the organization of censorship of communications. With respect to censorship Mr. Campbell, the postal censor who is now working in La Paz, is presenting a plan of organization to the appropriate Bolivian authorities in response to their request that he organize a system of censorship and select the personnel for operating it.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs expressed his appreciation of these offers of cooperation and indicated that his Government might wish to take advantage of our assistance in these respects since it was of course the intention of the Bolivian Government to cooperate even more with our Government now that Bolivia is in a state of war.
I received the distinct impression from the Minister for Foreign Affairs that he would appreciate it if our Government would send some message to the Bolivian Government in recognition of its action in decreeing that a state of war exists with the Axis. If the Department agrees it may wish to send a telegram along these lines.
- Raymond Ickes, Department of Justice agent.↩