800.20235/389: Telegram
The Ambassador in Argentina (Armour) to the Secretary of State
[Received 11 p.m.]
325. Department’s telegram 198, February 2, 11 p.m. I agree with the Department that it is of course possible that one of the reasons Foreign Office is asking for further information on espionage activities may be to ascertain how much we know or have been doing. On other hand it seems to me this is a risk inherent in present situation and fact remains that Foreign Office appears to be genuine in desire to present country with full and even sensational report on extensive nature of Axis espionage here. It is of course true that they have not acted as effectively as we would have wished on evidence submitted to previous government in our memoranda of November 1942 but as already reported the six confessed spies have been rearrested and I am assured by Gilbert will be sentenced shortly.
British Embassy is preparing memorandum submitting full information in their possession obtained outside of Argentina on cases of following Nazi agents: General Friedrich Wolf, German Military Attaché, Wilhelm von Seidlitz, Johannes Siegfried Becker, Hans Rodolfo Harnisch, Eugene Frank Langer, Lothar von Reichenbach, Juan Haarmeier, Gustav Utzinger, and Georg Bucker.
Also mentioned in connection therewith Martine Muller, Franz Hammen and Franz Schumann all three employed in German Embassy and Japanese Military Attaché Colonel Toshikazu Suzuki and Japanese Naval Attachés Admiral Katsumi Yukishita and Commander Tadasi Kameda. Also Pedro Ilvento and José Mella Alfageme (Reichenbach, Mella Alfageme and Utzinger were mentioned in Embassy’s memos of November 1942.) British memorandum will I understand be supplementary to Hellmuth confession. British hope to secure permission of Argentine authorities to permit one of their men from Trinidad to work with the police as interrogator of persons detained as result of information submitted and to be submitted by them. They have suggested that Argentine authorities are perhaps more disposed to accept suggestions from them than from us. Their man if accepted would keep our Embassy fully informed and be prepared to act for us.
That the Foreign Office is itself awake to dangers arising from presence in government, particularly in important ministries of War, Justice, and Interior, of men of pronounced pro-Axis sentiments is shown by fact that both Gilbert and Ibarra García34 have indicated clearly that information given by us will be dealt with by the Foreign [Page 382] Office. They have also been able to secure certain changes in Police Department notably transfer of … which gives us greater confidence that any material given them will be used more effectively.
To sum up we are faced with situation which may not occur again for some time in that (1) Foreign Office is itself desirous of presenting all evidence they can get to convince the country that serious Axis espionage activities have been conducted here and that their decision to break was based upon this knowledge; (2) British Embassy is apparently prepared to take risk and furnish them with important and confidential information in their possession; and (3) if we refuse to give similar cooperation it may tend to discourage Foreign Office from future cooperation if and when we feel time has come to submit what we have.
Would Department consider our making reference to evidence brought out by the British memorandum pointing to continuation of espionage rings mentioned in my memoranda of November 1942 and possibly the Deglane and Fernández cases, at same time insisting that thorough reexamination be made of other persons mentioned in these memoranda and still at large. This would in no way disclose activities of any U. S. organizations. We could perhaps add that on the basis of action taken on this evidence our Government would be willing to submit the further evidence of a serious nature referred to in paragraph 2 of telegram under reference.
- Argentine Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs.↩