710.11/212½
President Wilson to the Secretary of State
My Dear Mr. Secretary: I agree with your judgment about this. I think the only concession we can afford to make, if these articles are indeed to serve as any sort of a model for the action of other nations at any time, is to remove the definite time limit in Article Two; and that Article Three should stand as in our original. The new Article Three proposed by the Argentine Ambassador seems to me distinctly inferior to the original. It does not include the necessary reservation of questions of national honour, etc., upon which our Senate would certainly insist, and it seems to end nowhere, but to leave the whole thing vague. Do you not think so?
Article Two should, I think, provide that disputed questions of territory should be settled as promptly as possible, i. e., diligently pushed to a settlement.
Faithfully Yours,