710.1012 Anti-War/11
Memorandum by the Secretary of State
The Argentinian Ambassador came in to present me with copies of an anti-war treaty which was being proposed by his country. He submitted a letter and copies of the proposed treaty, which are annexed hereto.8
[Page 267]I took occasion to tell the Ambassador two things.
First, I called to his attention the fact that the Kellogg-Briand Pact was an anti-war treaty which had been executed by practically all the nations in the world except Argentina and one or two others. I told him we regarded that treaty as a great effort towards peace, made by the nations of the world who had suffered so much in the World War as a final effort to make a recurrence of such a disaster impossible. I told the Ambassador that I wished his government would, if it felt desirous of joining in any movement to prevent war, give consideration to joining this already existing treaty which we believed to be so potent and effective. He said that the treaty proposed was in some respects different from the Kellogg Treaty and more far-reaching. I told him I would read it but I hoped that he would bear my suggestion in mind and if he thought well of it to convey it to his government.
Second, I said while I was on this subject I should like to call his attention to the situation in Salvador;9 that in 1923 the five Central American Republics had entered into a treaty10 not to recognize any government that should come into effect in any one of them by revolution, and that they did this as a means of protection against the frequency of revolution. I said they had asked us to adopt the same policy in dealing with each of the five republics; that my predecessor, Mr. Hughes, had agreed to do so, and that we had followed that policy unvaryingly since. I said in every case our action had been in harmony with that of the four neutral republics in the matter concerned, and that the results of the treaty for the nine years during which it had been in effect had been beneficial and had restricted attempts at revolution; that it differed from our policy of recognition in regard to the rest of the world, but it was an exception which had been suggested by these countries themselves, and in the interest of self-determination and autonomy in that locality, particularly as it seemed to work well, we had agreed to follow it so long as they did. I told him that recently I had learned to my regret that his government was said to be seeking to organize a movement in South America to recognize Mr. Martínez. I said that hitherto all the South American countries had followed the same policy in regard to this case as we and the four Republics of Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica;11 that I regretted there should be this threatened divergence of policy, and I thought that it would tend to break down an honest [Page 268] attempt by these five republics to discourage revolution. The Ambassador said he had not heard of this, and he was evidently quite disturbed at the news.… I told the Ambassador I did not want to give him trouble and if he preferred I could send the communication through Bliss. He said no, he would try to do it himself.