711.5212A/9
The Spanish Ambassador (Padilla) to the Secretary of State56
Mr. Secretary: In reply to Your Excellency’s kind note dated the 10th of March last,57 in which were enclosed for the consideration of His Majesty’s Government a draft of an arbitration treaty between the United States and Spain along the lines which were distinctive in that signed between North America and the French Republic on the 6th of February of this year, I have the honor to inform Your Excellency that under instructions just received, the Government of His Majesty directs me to say that inasmuch as it has adopted for sometime past as a standard for a treaty of arbitration one that embraces all the disputes and conflicts, without any exception whatsoever, it finds itself, much to its regret, unable to sign the pact proposed by the Government of which Your Excellency forms such a worthy part, as it cannot make any exception to the rule it is following in those international questions by signing a treaty of arbitration which, in the opinion of His Majesty’s Government, does not respond to the breadth of judgment that has always inspired its international attitude.
All the more so, says His Excellency the President of the Council of Ministers of Spain, also Minister of State, as the conciliation [Page 881] treaty of 1914 between North America and Spain,58 which is still in force, is sufficiently broad and modern, even without accepting the principle of compulsory arbitration, to save the friendly relations, happily existing between our nations, from any danger of any possible surprise with unpleasant consequences, although such a thing is not to be feared in view of the cordiality of the relations between the United States and Spain.
As an enclosure to this note, and by way of information for Your Excellency, I have the honor to append a copy in French of the form of an arbitration, conciliation and judicial settlement treaty recently signed by Spain with many countries,59 and I must say to Your Excellency that His Majesty’s Government will always be ready to conclude one like it with the United States if your Government so desires.
That form of a treaty merely represents a further step with respect to the stipulations in that which was signed on September 15, 1914, that is still in force, which also reflects the spirit of North America by concluding an absolute compulsory general convention which are the characteristics shown in the projet which I have the honor to submit to Your Excellency for examination by enclosing it in this note.
The Government of His Majesty wishes to renew its fundamental adhesion to the principles which appear in the preamble at the head of the draft of a pact which Your Excellency submitted in a note dated the 10th of March last, and which principles Spain has no hesitation whatsoever in sponsoring. It is the purpose of my nation to show, by our example, that we not only outlaw war as an instrument of international policy, but also that we wish to hasten the arrival of the moment when the stipulation of international conventions for the peaceful settlement of conflicts among peoples will forever eliminate any possibility of war.
Lastly, I take pleasure in informing Your Excellency that His Excellency Señor Don Pablo Soler y Guardiola, Ambassador of His Majesty, has been named to take the place of His Excellency Señor Don Pio Gullón, who died sometime ago, on the Permanent International Commission provided for by Article 1 and in conformity with the provision in Article 2 of the Treaty for the settlement of differences between Spain and United States signed at Washington on September 15, 1914.
The International Commission being thus completed, the said treaty of conciliation will be fully operative for the good of the mutual friendly and cordial relations that bind the United States of America of the North and Spain.
I avail myself [etc.]
- No reply appears to have been made to this note.↩
- Not printed.↩
- Foreign Relations, 1914, p. 1082.↩
- Not printed.↩