852.5215/29
Memorandum by the Assistant Chief of the Division of Latin American Affairs (Beaulac)
| Conversation: | Mr. Fernando Illanes B., Second Secretary of the Chilean Embassy, concerning evacuation of Spanish nationals. |
| Mr. Beaulac | |
| Mr. Gantenbein.15 |
Mr. Fernando Illanes B. called at the Department this morning and in a conversation with me, at which Mr. Gantenbein was present, stated that he had been instructed by the Chilean Ambassador, who was out of the city, to make to the Chief of the Latin American Division of the Department, presumably upon instruction of the Chilean Government, a request in the sense of the attached undated memorandum which he left with me.16
[Page 696]After discussing the matter with Mr. Hickerson of the Division of Western European Affairs, I explained to Mr. Illanes that this Government had received a number of requests to extend assistance to Spanish nationals desiring to depart from Spain during the present Civil War but that it had been obliged, excepting in certain cases of close relations of American citizens, to reply that it was unable to comply with these requests owing to its policy of rigid neutrality and to the fact that any assistance that might be rendered Spanish nationals would necessarily weaken the efforts of this Government in evacuating nationals of the United States and of other countries besides Spain.
I asked Mr. Illanes to be good enough to communicate the substance of my remarks to the Chilean Ambassador, together with an expression of my hope that no injury would befall the individuals forming the subject of the request.
Mr. Illanes thanked me for this statement and departed.