711.5212Anti-War/46

The Ambassador in Spain (Hammond) to the Secretary of State

No. 1018

Sir: 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.]

Ogden H. Hammond
[Enclosure—Translation]

The Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs (Estella) to the American Ambassador (Hammond)

No. 267

Excellency: 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.]

Marqués de Estella
  1. President of the Council of Ministers, office held by General Primo de Rivera, Marqués de Estella, who was also Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs.
  2. Not printed.