835.01/30

The Assistant Secretary of State (Castle) to the Under Secretary of State (Cotton) and the Assistant Secretary of State (White)

The British Ambassador called at my house yesterday morning to say that his Government appreciated our friendly attitude in taking up with him the question of recognition of the new government of Argentina. He had just received a telegram, in which he was instructed to say that the British had studied the question very seriously in the light of reports from South America and had decided that clearly the governments of both Peru and Argentina should be recognized at the same time. The Foreign Office feels that conditions in the two countries are very similar and that it would be invidious to recognize one without recognizing the other. The Foreign Office feels, furthermore, that these governments, having displayed a reasonable stability and having expressed the determination to protect foreigners and to fulfill international relations, that they should be promptly recognized. The British Government wants us to know that Great Britain will recognize both Peru and the Argentine next Wednesday.3 He hopes that this will be agreeable to us and that we shall be willing to recognize at the same time. The Ambassador tells me that, in the meantime, if the question is raised, their [Page 386] Ambassadors have been told to say that, although there has not yet been formal recognition, they have been authorized to carry on diplomatically exactly as in the past.

In the light of the telegrams we have received, it seems to me we should be exceedingly unwise not to do this. I told the Ambassador that I would telephone him some time this morning what we should do.

W. R. C[astle, Jr.]
  1. September 17.