740.00115 European War 1939/7387
The Chargé in Chile (Heath) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 27.]
Sir: With reference to the Department’s strictly confidential telegram No. 988 of September 14, 1943, 7 p.m., and to my telegram in reply, No. 1631 of September 15, 1943, 7 p.m.,59 I have the honor to enclose a copy of the memorandum to the Ambassador of July 26, 1943,58 prepared by Mr. Raymond W. Ickes and Mr. James D. Bell, Alien Enemy Control Unit, Department of Justice, covering the recommendations of those officials with respect to alien enemy control problems in Chile. There is also transmitted a copy58 of the “List of Alien Enemies Whose Internment is Considered Warranted on the Basis of Information Presently Available in the Intelligence Offices of the Embassy and Whom the United States Government will Accept for Internment Provided the Chilean Government will Agree to their Expulsion from Chile and Internment in the United States.”
As reported in my telegram above referred to, the Embassy is in thorough agreement with the basic recommendation made by Ickes and Bell, namely, that as many of the dangerous Axis nationals in Chile as possible be sent to the United States for internment for the duration of the war.
[Page 822]Accordingly, I recommend that the Embassy be authorized to approach the Foreign Office in the following manner:
- 1.
- The Embassy will urge upon the Foreign Office the desirability of agreeing to a program of expulsion from Chile and internment in the United States of the 283 Axis nationals certified by Ickes and Bell as security subjects whose internment in the United States would be advisable. We will argue that, from the point of view of Chile’s security, hemisphere defense and the war effort of the United Nations, the Chilean Government should implement its rupture of relations with the Axis in a concrete form by eliminating the continuing menace of the presence in Chile of a considerable number of dangerous Axis agents and nationals, whose activities are illustrated by the PYL clandestine radio case; that the Chilean delegate approved without reservation the resolution regarding the detention and expulsion of dangerous Axis nationals from the American Republics which was adopted by the Emergency Advisory Committee at Montevideo on May 21, 1943;63 and that the methods thus far adopted by the Chilean Government for the restriction of such dangerous Axis nationals have not been effective.
- 2.
- Should the Chilean Government decline to accept this program, we might suggest that the dangerous Axis nationals in question be sent to one of the other American Republics for internment, provided the Department considers this idea feasible.
- 3.
- If the Chilean Government is not acquiescent to either proposal, we might urge the Chilean Government to adopt an effective local internment program with United States financial assistance. In this connection, reference is made to the penultimate paragraph of the Ickes-Bell memorandum, in which the opinion is expressed that United States financial assistance “would be forthcoming if the request for it were made, which would enable us to exercise some control over who was to be interned and what the conditions of internment would be.”
In the Embassy’s opinion it would be advisable for the Department to attempt to persuade Señor Fernández, the Chilean Minister for Foreign Affairs, who is now visiting the United States, to agree definitely to the primary recommendation made by the Enemy Alien Control Unit officials of our Department of Justice and concurred in by the Embassy respecting the desirability of expelling from this country and interning in our country the dangerous Axis nationals who will remain here after the departure of the German officials and diplomats. There has been frequently used by Chilean officials the argument that nothing can be done to restrain the activities of Axis nonofficials until the official group is gotten rid of. It is hoped that by the 23rd of this month this argument will have no bearing on the situation.
Respectfully yours,