Bureaucracy & Diplomacy

FRI 8 DEC 1939
Duties of the former Technical Division, Office of Naval Operations, concerned with matters of research and invention, is transferred to Office of the Technical Aid to the Secretary of the Navy.

Secretary of State Hull urges U.S. Chargé d'Affaires in the United Kingdom Johnson to urge the Contraband Commission in London to release U.S. freighter Nishmaha (then at Marseilles, France), which has been held 25 days "a most unreasonable detention" (see 19 December).

U.S. Consul General in Hamburg Keblinger reports that German prize control authorities are detaining more than 125 neutral ships in German ports: at least 40 Swedish, 12 Danish, 5 Norwegian, 40 Finnish, 14 Estonian and 14 Latvian, comprising practically all neutral vessels clearing Baltic or Scandinavian ports with cargoes of goods that are on the German contraband list (see 27 December).