793.94/4850
Memorandum by the Secretary of State
During the call of the Belgian Ambassador today he said that he had read my statement about the resolution, adopted by the Assembly of the League of Nations, where I spoke of that action thus taken as being a step forward in international law, and he wanted to know my view as to that in detail—would it need to be enacted into code or [Page 593] be a matter for subsequent agreement. I replied that I thought this would probably not be necessary; that the action of the Assembly was a very solemn declaration of policy on a subject of international relations, taken by practically all the nations of the world in a formal meeting; that we had taken the same action by ourselves, and that I thought that declarations thus made by practically all the world would, of themselves, tend to establish the doctrine thus enunciated as international law. I pointed out that that was the way in which, in many instances, international law had been established in the past and that never had there been a more formal or such a representative declaration as this one.
I told the Ambassador that I had been very greatly pleased with the earnestness and seriousness of the nations assembled at Geneva which, in my opinion, had been greatly helped and promoted by the courage and wisdom of Mr. Hymans of Belgium, who had been the President of the Assembly. I asked the Ambassador to convey my deep appreciation of this to Mr. Hymans himself. The Ambassador said that he gladly would and that Mr. Hymans would deeply appreciate it.