File No. 763.72/4858
The Ambassador in Brazil ( Morgan ) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 23, 10.35 a.m.]
President of Brazil sent to Congress this afternoon the following message:
Gentlemen of the National Congress: In the message which I sent to the National Congress on the 3d of the present month, I stated that I had issued decree No. 12458 of the 25th of April last relative to the neutrality to be observed by Brazil in view of the existing state of war between the United States and the Imperial German Government.
I issued this decree, although commercial and diplomatic relations with Germany had been suspended in accordance with decree No. 11037 of August 4, 1914, which set forth the international agreements of the two conventions at The Hague to which Brazil had been a party, defining the rights and duties of neutral powers and persons, but avoiding in this document the terms used in previous acts of this nature and directing only that the Brazilian authorities observe and comply with the rules of neutrality until such a time as they should be otherwise directed.
The government could go no further; but the Brazilian people through their vested legislative authority can, without bellicose intentions but with firmness, take into consideration the fact that one of the belligerents is an integral part of the American continent and that with this belligerent we are united by a traditional friendship and by the same political ideals in the defense of the vital interests of America and the principles of international law.
This has been the universal principle to which Brazil has adhered. The Republic remains faithful to the uninterrupted traditions of its foreign policy; to-day it can not repudiate the idea which inspired the note of protest of the Empire of Brazil, bearing the date of May 15, 1866, when a European squadron bombarded a South American city.
[Page 286]Our tenet then was this: That the nations of this continent, whose wealth and population are spread over extensive and undefined coastline, require more than others that the principles of modern civilization shall be maintained and shall constitute their most efficient protection.
Emphasizing finally that the policy of continental solidarity is not a policy of this epoch of government nor of this regime but a traditional policy of the Brazilian nation, I submit the case to the judgment of the National Congress, convinced that if perchance any resolution is adopted it will strengthen more than before the happy understanding which exists between Brazil and the United States.