Office of the Historian

File No. 710.11/230a

The Secretary of State to certain American Missions 1

[Circular telegram.]
Department of State,
Washington, January 24, 1916.

It is proposed to embody, in a general convention to be subscribed to by all the American Republics, the following provision, in four articles, in which the several Republics agree:

I.
To guarantee their territorial integrity and political independence.
II.
To settle all boundary disputes by amicable arrangement or by arbitration.
III.
To submit all differences between any two of them, excepting those affecting honor, independence and interests of third parties, to a permanent international commission, which will render a decision within one year, and if decision be unsatisfactory to submit such differences to arbitration.
IV.
To prohibit the departure of military forces, arms or ammunition from their territory to revolutionists in other Republics.

This matter was referred to by President Wilson in his speech to the Second Pan American Scientific Congress on January 62 and has already been accepted in principle by a majority of the Republics represented at that conference.

Should the Chief Executive or the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the country to which you are accredited broach this subject to you, you may informally express the interest taken in this proposal by the President of the United States and the hope of this Government that a treaty to this end may be signed by all the American Republics.

Lansing
  1. To the American Missions in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Salvador, Uruguay, Venezuela.↩
  2. Printed in the Daily Bulletin, Second Pan American Scientific Congress of January 7, 1916, Department of State Library JX 1424 C 7 Sc 26, 1915/16.↩