825.796/24
The Ambassador in Chile (Collier) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 5.]
Sir: I have the honor to state that on June 1st I accompanied the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the then acting Minister of the Interior, Señor Osvaldo Koch (Minister of Justice), and the Director General of Posts (Señor Brieba), in the car of the President of the Republic, to Valparaiso to attend the ceremonies arranged by the Grace Line to celebrate the arrival, for the first time in that port, of their new motor ship, the Santa Maria.
I had an opportunity to talk with the Director General of Posts with regard to the possibility of the establishment of an air mail service between the United States and Chile. The Department will recall my despatches, sent some two months ago,84 with regard to other conversations with him concerning this matter and particularly as to the French Latécoère Company’s contract for the air mail service between Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Africa and Europe.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Director General also said that he had been giving much thought to air mail service in Chile and that he believed that the principle of “cabotage” or coastwise trade ought to be applied to air ships as well as to ocean going ships; namely, that the transport of mail, passengers and packages from one Chilean town to another by air ought to be reserved to Chilean air ships, and that foreign air ships should be allowed to carry on trade only between Chilean towns and foreign towns. I expressed the opinion that this rather novel suggestion would militate against the establishment of air service; [Page 808] that at the present time every incentive should be given to the establishment of such services rather than restrictions imposed which would prevent or retard their establishment and development.
In the conversation which I had with the Minister of Foreign Affairs at his weekly reception on June 6, 1928, I brought up the matter and reiterated these views and expressed the hope that Chile would not adopt a policy which would in any way impede the establishment and maintenance of an air mail service between the United States and Chile or impair the service.
I have [etc.]
- Despatches not printed; see Ambassador’s telegram No. 54, supra.↩