740.00111A Arms Control–Transshipments/13: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Kennedy)
1097. Your no. 1810, September 25, 2 p.m. In view of the assurances which you have received from the Foreign Office, the Department is instructing collectors of customs to permit the departure of shipments of arms consigned to the Government of China via Rangoon which have been held at ports of exit. The Department is also resuming the issuance of licenses authorizing such shipments.
It is noted that the assurances which you have received refer specifically to shipments destined to the Chinese Government. Licenses are occasionally applied for to authorize the shipment of small quantities of small arms and small arms ammunition consigned to the Shanghai International Settlement Municipal Police for its use. Such shipments are frequently routed via Hong Kong.
Shipments of arms from this country to Thailand are, without exception, transshipped at Singapore.
The Department has issued a license authorizing the exportation of 20 machine guns to Liberia. These guns were purchased by the Liberian Government for the internal defense of the country under the plan concerning which you have been fully informed.80 Licenses authorizing the exportation of ammunition for these guns will probably be applied for in the near future. The Liberian Government wishes to ship these arms on ships of the American West African Steamship Line. Its vessels are scheduled to touch at Freetown en route to Monrovia. In this connection, it may be noted that the Department has been informed by the Firestone interests that a shipment of dynamite consigned to the American Legation in Monrovia for use in the construction of the new Legation was unloaded and detained at Freetown but finally permitted to proceed after considerable delay.
You are requested to ascertain whether the Foreign Office is willing to give assurance that these shipments of arms to Shanghai, Thailand, and Liberia will not be detained or otherwise interfered with while in British territory en route to destination. As the ships of the American West African Steamship Line are also scheduled to stop en route at French West African ports, the Embassy in Paris is being requested to ask for similar assurances from the French Government in respect to the proposed shipments to Liberia.81
- See vol. iv, pp. 564–614, passim.↩
- French assurances were reported in Embassy’s telegram No. 2446, October 13, 11 a.m. (740.00111A Arms Control–Transshipments/25).↩