711.00111 Lic. Hanover Sales Corp./52/21
The Spanish Ambassador (De los Rios) to the Secretary of State
Memorandum
The Ambassador of Spain has the honor to call the attention of the Secretary of State to his note No. 136/15, dated September 7, 1937,75 with reference to the purchase of a bullet proof limousine, for the Prime Minister of Spain.
The Proclamation is issued pursuant to a Joint Resolution of Congress, approved May 1, 1937, which prohibits, under certain circumstances, the export of “arms, ammunition, and implements of war”. The question of whether a bullet proof automobile is a “military armored vehicle” depends in the final analysis on whether it is embraced by the concepts “arms, ammunition or implements of war”.
[Page 601]It is a matter of common knowledge that there has been a fairly wide use of such type of automobile in this country for many years for civilian purposes only. They have had a general acceptance by high government officials, both state and federal, as a matter of protection. The automobile in question is for similar use by a high official of the Spanish Republic, and there is no intention, present or future, to use such automobile for any other purpose.
It seems entirely clear that “arms, ammunition and implements of war” as used in the Proclamation refer to, and were intended to refer to a particular class of contraband within the meaning of generally accepted international law. Contraband within the meaning of international law has been divided into three classes. “Of these classes,” said the Supreme Court of the United States in The Peterhoff, 5 Wallace 28, “the first consists of articles manufactured and primarily and ordinarily used for military purposes in time of war; the second, of articles which may be and are used for purposes of war or peace according to circumstances; and the third, of articles exclusively used for peaceful purposes.”
While it seems that a bullet proof automobile falls within the third class referred to by the Supreme Court, and while possibly it might be argued that such an automobile falls within the second class referred to, it seems that such an automobile cannot logically and properly be considered as an article “manufactured and primarily and ordinarily used for military purposes in time of war” within the meaning of the first class. The entire list of articles enumerated in the President’s Proclamation of May 1, 1937, falls, without exception, within the first class of articles of contraband referred to by the Supreme Court.
The use of the adjective “military” before the words “armored vehicle” in the Proclamation is obviously by way of limitation only and confirms the viewpoint above expressed.
The Hanover Sales Corporation had made a request to the Department of State for two automobiles, for the President and the Prime Minister of Spain, which the Department of State was unable to grant, but the Spanish Ambassador trusts that, in view of the foregoing, it will be possible to permit the said purchase.
- Not printed.↩