File No. 763.72119/606
The Venezuelan Minister ( Domínici ) to the Secretary of State
[A copy of the following reply of the Venezuelan Government to the Government of Argentina, was handed by the Minister to the Secretary of State on May 17, 1917.]
I am in receipt of the courteous information conveyed by your excellency that the Government of the Argentine Republic has taken the initiative for a conference, the object of which is to reach an understanding among the nations of America because of the present war. My Government sincerely appreciates your excellency’s courteous communication, but at the same time has the honor to inform you that, notwithstanding its warm sympathy for everything that might tend to strengthen the bonds of American solidarity, it can not accept the invitation, as the cooperation of Venezuela towards the realization of the idea initiated by the Argentine Republic is not within the line of conduct which from the beginning of the war my Government has resolved to follow.