711.5212Anti-War/46
The Ambassador in Spain (Hammond) to the Secretary of
State
San
Sebastian, September 4,
1928.
[Received September 17.]
No. 1018Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith
a copy and translation of a note under date of August 30th last from
General Primo de Rivera in reply to the note which I delivered to
him on August 28th last, No. 602, dated August 27, 1928, in
accordance with the Department’s telegraphic circular instruction
dated August 27, 1928, at Paris.
As the Department will observe, General Primo de Rivera although
expressing sympathy with the aims of the anti-war pact, has
refrained from committing himself as to when Spain will adhere.
I have been reliably informed that it is the intention of the
President44 to adhere to the treaty at some future time, but
to defer this action for the present in order to avoid hurting the
susceptibilities of the Latin-American republics, and in particular
of the Argentine, which country is reported to have refused to
adhere to the anti-war treaty. Such articles as the interview given
to the press by Señor Fernandez Medina, Uruguayan Minister at
Madrid, reported in the Embassy’s despatch No. 1007 dated August 21,
1928,45 as well
as several other articles from Latin-American sources hostile to the
pact, have undoubtedly been effective in causing General Primo de
Rivera to postpone Spain’s adhesion.
I have [etc.]
[Enclosure—Translation]
The Spanish Minister for Foreign
Affairs (Estella) to the
American Ambassador (Hammond)
San Sebastian, August 30, 1928.
No. 267Excellency: I have received Your
Excellency’s courteous note of the 27th inst. in which you were
good enough to transcribe the text of the treaty signed in Paris
on that date by the Governments of South Africa, Germany,
Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia, France, Great
Britain, Italy, Ireland, India, Japan, New Zealand, Poland and
the Government which Your Excellency so worthily represents, and
by reason of which, war is renounced as an instrument of
national policy, those Governments undertaking to employ
peaceful means for the solution of all difficulties which may
arise between them.
In the note above acknowledged, Your Excellency details the
history of the negotiations which preceded the signing of the
above mentioned
[Page 181]
pact,
transmitting likewise a bulletin containing the diplomatic
correspondence exchanged for that purpose, and finally in
accordance with Article 3 of the Agreement under instructions
from the Government of the United States, Your Excellency
informs me that the pact will be open to the adhesion of all
countries in the world as soon as it has entered into effect,
once it has been ratified by the signatory nations, that such
adhesions are to be made at Washington, and that the signatory
nations have hoped and desired that the multilateral treaty
signed in Paris may become a World pact.
In thanking Your Excellency for transmitting the amiable
sentiments which Your Government expresses, echoing those of all
the other countries that have signed the anti-war pact, I wish
to express the sympathy with which Spain’s government, and I
personally, have regarded this new step toward World peace
consecrating the employment of procedure and measures of an
anti-bellicose nature for the solution of international
difficulties and conflicts; in the hope that through successive
ratifications it may enter into effect as soon as possible, and
that through the adhesion of all civilized countries the pact
may have a universal force, Spain intending not to remain behind
any country in expressing at the opportune moment the will and
desire of the Spanish people regarding ideas for which the
Government over which I preside has labored since its accession
to power and for which it proposes to work.
I avail myself [etc.]
