File No. 763.72112/494
The Chargé d’Affaires in Argentina (Lorillard) to the Secretary of State
Buenos Aires, November 18, 1914.
[Received December 18.]
No. 371]
Sir: Referring to my No. 362,1 respecting Argentine neutrality in the present European war, I have the honor to report that, owing to the German naval victory off the Chilean coast, the seizure of merchant vessels by German cruisers in the alleged territorial waters of other South American countries, and the detention by various belligerent war vessels of merchant steamers in the South Atlantic, there has been of late considerable anxiety expressed in this country lest mercantile navigation be temporarily suspended in the South Atlantic. In the course of a conversation to-day with Dr. Murature, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, he informed me that he had instructed the Argentine Ambassador at Washington to suggest to you that the Pan American Union should be authorized by all the American Republics to propose to the belligerents that certain sections of the southern Atlantic and Pacific should be closed to naval warfare and that the belligerents should come to some arrangement with the union as to the protection of neutral shipping. Dr. Murature said that he understood that this suggestion had been favorably received by you and that the details of the plan are at present under consideration. He added that the present navigation conditions are intolerable and are a serious menace to the transportation of the Argentine exports. At the same time he requested me to cable you of what great importance he deems it that his suggestion should be adopted. This I promised to do; and have accordingly sent you my telegram of November 18, 6 p.m.
I have [etc.]