Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1944, The American Republics, Volume VII

862.20210/2854: Telegram

The Ambassador in Chile (Bowers) to the Secretary of State

Santiago, April 25, 1944—3 p.m.
[Received 8 p.m.]

736. I am most surprised to receive the Department’s telegram 465, April 21, 8 p.m.⁷⁷ particularly after the receipt of the Department’s affirmative telegraphic reply No. 457 of April 20, 6 p.m. to the request contained in my telegram 693, April 18, 1 p.m.⁷⁸ that the espionage messages broadcast from Chile be made available to the Chilean Government.

The desire of the Department that the United States Government not be implicated in this case as expressed in the Department’s telegram 176 of February 10, 5 p.m.⁷⁹ has no bearing on the matter at this point because the Embassy has been implicated in it for over 2 months and this is well known in Chile. As the Embassy has repeatedly reported to the Department, members of the Legal Attaché’s office have worked in close conjunction with officials of Investigaciones in the development of the case. Furthermore, El Mercurio, El Diario Ilustrado and other Santiago newspapers reported on February 23 that this vast spy ring had been discovered with the aid of the United States intelligence service. It would be hard to find a literate person in Chile so unimaginative as not to believe that we have an intelligence service here in wartime.

Chile is not a country controlled by a dictator but a democracy that functions under legal processes. For a prompt and complete prosecution of the case the Chilean judicial authorities must have (repeat must have) legal evidence against the spies in the form of these intercepted radio messages.

Resolution XIX of the Rio resolutions⁸⁰ provides that the Governments of the American Republics shall coordinate their national intelligence and investigation services for the inter-American exchange of information, investigations and suggestions for the prevention, repression, punishment and elimination of espionage. We certainly have very vital information to exchange right now. We cannot with grace urge the Chilean Government on the one hand to carry out these international commitments and on the other hand refuse to carry them out ourselves. Acting upon the Department’s instructions, I have consistently called upon the Chilean Government to prosecute this espionage case with vigor, and now I am instructed to tell it that we cannot furnish essential information which we alone have. If we fail to turn over the desired radio messages, we shall be placed in a very unfortunate position and lacking in good faith.

For the reasons set forth above I recommend without reservation that I be authorized to furnish copies of the coded messages in order that the Chilean police may decode them and that the judicial authorities may use them in court. The police have the code books used by the spies and they have the spies to help in decoding the messages. Hence we shall be not only fulfilling our word but also getting information vital to our own security.

Bowers

77. Not printed; in this telegram the Department indicated that it could not comply with a Chilean request for copies of intercepted messages broadcast from Chile (862.20210/2846).
78. Neither printed.
79. Not printed.
80. For correspondence on the Third Meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the American Republics held at Rio de Janeiro January 15–28, 1942, see Foreign Relations, 1942, vol. v, pp. 6 ff. For text of Resolution XIX, see Department of State Bulletin, February 7, 1942, p. 132.