Statement by the Acting Secretary of State, June 3, 193846
The Government of the United States has on numerous occasions expressed its belief that the outbreak of serious hostilities anywhere in the world might in one way or another affect the interests of this country. Both in the Far East and in Europe there have been going on hostilities every aspect of which the American people and this Government have deplored. When the methods used in the conduct of these hostilities take the form of ruthless bombing of unfortified localities with the resultant slaughter of civilian populations and in particular of women and children, public opinion in the United States regards such methods as barbarous. Several times during the past year, especially on September 28, 1937,47 and on March 21, 1938,48 the Secretary of State has expressed the views of this country to the effect that any general bombing of an extensive area wherein there resided a large population engaged in peaceful pursuits is contrary to every principle of law and of humanity. During the past few days there have taken place in China and in Spain aerial bombings which have resulted in the death of many hundreds of the civilian population. This Government, while scrupulously adhering to the policy of nonintervention, reiterates this nation’s emphatic reprobation of such [Page 596] methods and of such acts, which are in violation of the most elementary principles of those standards of humane conduct which have been developed as an essential part of modern civilization.
- Reprinted from Department of State, Press Releases, June 4, 1938 (vol. xviii, No. 453), p. 642.↩
- See press release issued by the Department of State on September 28, 1937, p. 506.↩
- Statement, “Revolution in Spain; Bombing of Civilian Populations,” Department of State, Press Releases, March 26, 1938 (vol. xviii, No. 443), p. 396.↩