825.7494/1
The Ambassador in Chile (Bowers) to the Secretary of State
[Received March 16.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer to the Department’s strictly confidential Instruction No. 2493 of December 18, 1942,46 requesting an investigation of a report that arrangements were made during September 1942 by direct negotiations between the two governments for radio telegraphic communications between Chile and Japan via Colombo, Ceylon.
A direct radio circuit between Chile and Japan was in operation prior to September 1942 and messages in plain language approved by the Chilean Government continued to be sent by this means until February 16, 1943. The Chilean station is known by the call letters CEF, CEG, CEA, and CEA2 and is owned by the Compañía Transradio Chilena, in which RCA Communications holds a minority interest. The Japanese station was usually JUF at Tokyo. As I reported in my despatch No. 5798 of February 20, 1943, the directors of Cía. Transradio Chilena voted on February 16 to cease direct operations with Tokyo and Berlin and the circuits were closed down the same day. There has also been direct communication between station LQE at Buenos Aires and Japanese stations and I have not heard that this service has been interrupted.
[Page 914]In view of the existence of direct radio communications in September and thereafter until the break of relations, it is difficult to understand what advantage the Japanese could have sought in providing for connection through a relay point in enemy territory and it seems preposterous that the British Government would consider itself bound by any previously existing international agreement to permit radio facilities in its territory to be used for communicating directly with Japan, even for relaying messages to and from Chile.
On December 18, 1942, the Santiago daily El Mercurio printed the following item (translated from Spanish):
“Postal Service From Japan to Argentina and Chile—Tokyo 17—(Intercepted by the United Press). The official radio station announced that the Ministry of Communications has stated that as a result of ‘successful negotiations with Argentina and Chile’ it has been decided to resume postal service with both countries via Siberia. It added that for the present Japanese post offices will accept only letters and postcards. Postal service between Japan, Argentina, and Chile was suspended upon the outbreak of war a year ago.”
A member of my staff brought this to the attention of the manager of All America Cables and inquired whether he knew of any similar arrangement regarding cable or radio communications, but nothing had come to his notice although he had seen the article about postal service and considered it unimportant, whether or not it was true.
The West Coast Telegraph Company, a subsidiary of Cables and Wireless, Ltd., continued to accept messages for Axis countries and controlled areas, including Japan, after the American company, All America Cables, had declined to do so in October 1942. The manager for Chile of the West Coast Telegraph Company stated that he lacked authority to take such action on his own responsibility and had not received instructions to do so, but that specific instructions from the Chilean Government to that effect would constitute sufficient authorization. As reported in my airgram47 in reply to the Department’s No. A–435 of January 9, 1943, 3:05 p.m., the West Coast Telegraph Company received instructions about January 15 from Cables and Wireless, Ltd., to cease accepting messages for transmission to Axis and Axis-controlled countries and on January 21 the Chilean Government issued instructions to all the telecommunications companies to accept no such messages. During the period September 1942–January 1943 it is possible that messages despatched by the West Coast Telegraph Company may have been routed for retransmission via Colombo through Russia or some other Asiatic country not at war with Japan.
Because of the distinct change of atmosphere which has occurred in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs since September and the present [Page 915] satisfactory attitude toward direct radio communications between Chile and Japan, it would probably be necessary to ask a direct question in order to establish the authenticity of the information received by the Department. This, of course, I shall not do, but I shall report any information on the matter that may be learned by other means.
Respectfully yours,