Following transcriptions of exchanges of notes on the subject of
recognition of the new State of Manchukuo and of the new government of
Chile, the Foreign Office states the general policy which will guide the
present administration in according or declining recognition of new
states and governments.
Dr. Ferrara informally stated in
conversation that this policy, in accordance with which the Dávila government was recognized in
Chile and recognition was refused to Manchukuo, was not inspired by the
so-called Estrada doctrine and is
not to be confused therewith. My impression is that, the Secretary of
State would prefer the policy which he has dictated for the guidance of
his government during the present administration to be known as a
“Ferrara Doctrine.”
It is noteworthy that recognition should have been accorded by Cuba to
the new Government of Chile without consultation with or notification to
this Embassy, inasmuch as it has heretofore been the policy of the
administration to follow the lead of the United States in such
cases.
[Enclosure—Translation]
The Cuban Secretary of State (Ferrara) to the
Cuban Diplomatic Representatives
Abroad
Mr. (Ambassador, Minister, or Chargé d’Affaires):
The undersigned Secretary, during the short period he has filled this
office, has faced the necessity of solving two cases of recognition,
one of a new State and the other of a new Government.
On March 12th of this year, the new State of Manchuria addressed to
this Government of Cuba a note, which, in translation reads as
follows:
[For text of the note in English as sent to the United States, see
telegram from Mr. Hsieh
Chieh-shih to the Secretary of State, March 12, 1932,
printed in volume III, page
579.]
The Government of Cuba replied in the terms which in translation are
as follows:
“Mr. Minister: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of
Your Excellency’s valued communication dated in Changchun on
March 12th of this year, by which you were so good as to
advise me that the Provinces of Fengtien, Kirin,
Heilungkiang and Jehol, as well as the special District of
Tungsheng and the Mongolian Mengs (Leagues),
[Page 484]
have united under several
flags for the purpose of establishing an independent
Government, severing their relations with the Republic of
China and creating the State of Manchuria with unity of
action and a single purpose. Your Excellency likewise states
the reasons which counselled the establishment of the new
State, as well as its purposes; and as to the relations with
foreign nations, you set forth the principles according to
which it has been definitely decided to adjust diplomatic
intercourse. Finally, Your Excellency expresses the desire
that formal diplomatic relations may be established between
the Cuban Government and the new State of Manchuria. In
reply, I am pleased to state that the Government of Cuba
follows the practice of recognizing every State which is
created with the consent of the governed, thereby
maintaining in its integrity the principle of ‘self
determination’. As soon as the foregoing principle is
evidenced in your State, and the principal Powers interested
in the policy and in the international commerce of the
Oriental regions consider that the life of this new State is
assured, the Government of Cuba will have no objection to
entering into formal and continuous relations with the State
of Manchuria. I avail myself of this opportunity to offer to
Your Excellency the assurance of my highest and most
distinguished consideration, (signed) Orestes Ferrara. To His
Excellency Mr. Hsieh
Chieh-Shih, Minister of Foreign Affairs of
Manchuria. —Changchun.”
On July 15th last, the new Government of Chile addressed the
Government of Cuba in the following terms:
“Mr. Secretary: I have the honor to advise Your Excellency
that on the 8th of the current month of July, the Government
of Chile was constituted under the Provisional Presidency of
Mr. Carlos Dávila,
with the following Cabinet: Minister of the Interior, Mr.
Eliseo Peña
Villalón; Foreign Affairs and Commerce, Mr.
Luis Barriga
Errázuriz; Treasury, Mr. Enrique Zañartu Prieto;
Justice, Mr. Guillermo
Bañados; Education, Mr. Carlos Soto Rengifo; War,
Lieutenant Colonel Pedro
Lagos; Navy, Rear Admiral Francisco Nieto;
Improvements (‘Fomento’), Mr. Victor
Navarrete; Public Health, Doctor Alfonso Quijano; Lands and
Colonization, is temporarily filled by the Minister of the
Interior; Agriculture, Mr. Arturo
Riveros; and Labor, Mr. Ignacio Toro.—Likewise I
have the honor to state to Your Excellency that the new
Government addressed the following Note to the Resident
Diplomatic Corps:
‘The Government of Chile, in the development of the
principles which embody its program of action, will
respect its international obligations, insure
internal order, and endeavor to draw more closely
the ties of all kinds which unite it to friendly
countries. With the purpose of definitely
establishing normal public functions, it has already
adopted the measures which permit consultation of
the will of the people the first Sunday of the
coming month of October.’
Upon communicating the above to Your Excellency, I have to
state that the Government hopes to continue the cordial
relations which have always existed with the Government of
Your Excellency, with a view to tightening the ties of
friendship between our countries. In bringing the foregoing
to the knowledge of Your Excellency, I avail
[Page 485]
myself of this opportunity to
renew to you the assurances of my highest and most
distinguished consideration, (signed) Emilio E. Bello. To His
Excellency, Dr. Orestes
Ferrara, Secretary of State of the Republic
of Cuba.”
The undersigned replied as follows:
“Mr. Minister: I have the honor to refer to your valued note
of yesterday, in which you are so kind as to inform me that
the Government of Chile has been organized under the
provisional Presidency of Mr. Carlos Dávila, likewise giving me the names
of the persons who have been designated to form the Cabinet.
In wishing Your Country all the happiness of which it is
worthy, I have the honor to state that it is my earnest
desire to continue the good relations which Cuba has always
maintained with the Republic of Chile, and to draw still
closer the ties of friendship which join the two countries,
and at the same time to inform you that I have given
instructions to our Minister in Santiago to call on His
Excellency the President and personally express the
foregoing wishes. I renew to Your Excellency the assurances
of my highest and most distinguished consideration, (signed)
Orestes
Ferrara.—To His Excellency Mr. Emilio Edwards Bello,
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Chile,
Habana.”
In matters of recognition, political interest has on many occasions
been in conflict with legal opinion. We should desire to see the Law
triumph in all cases, but we cannot deny that polical interest has
priority in matters of this nature.
We consider it to be difficult to establish a theory, and we
understand that the practical exigencies of the moment must be
considered in every case, but within this practical relativity, we
establish these general lines for the future:
- (1)
- Every new State which emerges from a Treaty to which Cuba
may be one of the signatory or adherent parties, is, ipso facto, considered as recognized
by the mere fact of the signature or adhesion, without the necessity of any further
actions.
- (2)
- Every new state which emerges through the acceptance and
recognition by an International Organization (League of
Nations, International American Conferences), of which Cuba
may be a member, is considered to be recognized without the
necessity of new actions.
- (3)
- Notwithstanding what has been set forth in the preceding
paragraph, the mere fact that a State may form part of one
of the international organizations, in which Cuba may also
be represented, does not a fortiori imply recognition of
such State.
- (4)
- In order that a new State which is not in the situation of
those mentioned in the first two paragraphs, may be
recognized, it must fulfill the following conditions:
- (a)
- That it be created in accordance with the will of
the communities which form it.
- (b)
- That it shall have, either directly or indirectly,
by word or deed, expressed the desire to enter into
the family of Nations.
- (d)
- [sic] That the principal
countries interested in the region where the new
State is created shall have recognized it.
Every new Government, in distinction to every new State, must be
recognized except in the case of weighty reasons which may make
necessary the adoption of an opposite action, practically always
tending to delay recognition rather than to deny it definitively. In
Political Law, national or international, fact precedes the law.
But, it is evident that at times political interest may advise our
country not to enter into official relations with a new Government.
As a general thesis, and save in the case in which our interest may
indicate to us that we should assume a different attitude, this
Department considers that the following rules prevail in the
recognition of new Governments:
- 1st.
- That the new Government represent an established order,
not precisely absolute, but not momentary either, and that
in the political confusion which exists, because a new
situation is involved, the party or group in power represent
the most homogeneous part of those engaged in the
struggle—in short, that a power with relative effectivity
shall have been organized.
- 2nd.
- That this new Government declare that it will fulfill its
international obligations of a generic order and that it
will not try to harm any specific interest of ours or
substantive rights of nations with which we maintain cordial
relations.
- 3rd.
- That the State in which the new Government has been formed
may not have dictated, through Treaties, certain obligations
to itself, in matters of recognition, such as has happened
with the States of Central America.
- 4th.
- That the State in which the new Government is formed may
not have accepted a doctrine such as the Tobar doctrine52 and
may have been applying it.
Recognition is the function exclusively of the Executive Power and
therefore these rules constitute points of view of the present
Administration which may change with circumstances and assume
special cases in which a different procedure may be followed.
In controversies between parties, the Courts of Justice are not
obliged to conform to the principles enumerated above, and they must
take into consideration the juridical, and not the political aspect
of the question.
[Page 487]
These declarations will serve, Mr. (Ambassador, Minister, or Chargé
d’Affaires) to apprise you of the attitude which this Department may
take in the cases which may arise in the future.
I renew to you the assurance of my distinguished consideration.
Secretary of State
