710.1012 Washington/94
The Ambassador in Argentina (Bliss) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 18.]
Sir: In acknowledging the receipt of the Department’s instruction No. 71 of April 14 last, relative to the conference of conciliation and arbitration it is proposed to hold at Washington next December, I have the honor to report that I called on the Minister for Foreign Affairs the day following the receipt of the instruction and handed him a note (copy enclosed),5 acquainting him with the Department’s suggestions and inquiring if they were acceptable to the Argentine Government.
At the same time, I spoke of the so-called Gondra Treaty and the importance the United States Government attached to its ratification and the deposit thereof at Santiago, by the signatory Powers which had not yet done so, before the conference should meet in Washington. Dr. Gallardo said he fully understood that point of view and would make a renewed effort to obtain ratification by Congress before which body it had remained for five years without action being taken. Although one party had now a majority in the Chamber of Deputies, the Minister said, and the Argentine Government, throughout its history, [Page 639] had approved arbitration as a method of settling international disputes, he was not sanguine of obtaining ratification.
On June 5 the Embassy received a note from the Minister (copy and translation enclosed)5a stating that the Argentine Government would designate two Argentine jurisconsults to participate in the conference.
The note did not mention whether the date proposed by the Department was acceptable. On receipt, therefore, the following day, of the Department’s circular telegram of June 6, 11 a.m.,6 I telephoned the Foreign Office to clear up this point and was subsequently informed that the date was acceptable and that Dr. Carlos Alberto Alcorta and Dr. Luis A. Podestá Costa would represent Argentina at the Conference (see my telegram No. 40 of June 8, 6 p.m.).7
Today I am in receipt of an answer from the Minister for Foreign Affairs to the note addressed him in compliance with the Department’s unnumbered telegraphic instruction of June 19, 3 p.m. Doctor Gallardo’s note (copy and translation enclosed)7 accepts the Secretary’s invitation and confirms the notification of the appointment of Dr. Alcorta and Dr. Podestá Costa.
I have [etc.]