810.20 Defense/1–1645: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Chile ( Bowers )
73. ReEmbs 71, January 16, 9 p.m. Department is glad to learn questions raised by Chilean Government have not been permitted to interfere with the progress of the conversations. The quotations from General Brett’s agenda contained in your telegram are, and should be regarded as, statements of well-established U.S. policy forming the framework within which the “United States representatives are to participate in staff conversations of purely technical and exploratory character.
[Page 737]The general political question of security arrangements is being approached by this Government and others on a multi-lateral basis as evidenced by the Dumbarton Oaks Proposals17 and the subjects to be discussed at the forthcoming Conference in Mexico City. With this in mind the instructions concerning the staff conversations have specifically provided that any eventual arrangements for the supply of arms and equipment would be subject to overriding considerations of an international security system and any international agreement regulating arms traffic which may be made.
Should the Chilean Government press you on the questions reported in your 71, please explain the nature of these items on the agenda as stated in the first paragraph above. Please say that you are transmitting the Chilean Government’s comments to your Government but that it does not seem appropriate at this time or in connection with the staff conversations to pursue the question of any special bilateral arrangements with Chile in view of developing proposals for general international security arrangements.
- For documentation on the Dumbarton Oaks conversations, held in Washington, August 21–October 7, 1944, with respect to the establishment of an international organization for the maintenance of international peace and security, see Foreign Relations, 1944, vol. i, pp. 713–900.↩