765.84/1381: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Bingham)
270. Your 472, September 25, 6 p.m. With reference to your conversation of September 25 with the British Foreign Minister, I think it may be helpful to you to have by way of background the following exposition of the Department’s present views on these matters for discreet use in any further conversations you may have with competent British officials.
With regard to Sir Samuel’s inquiry as to whether consideration has been given to the possibility of consultation among the signatories of the Pact of Paris, it is assumed that in speaking of consultation Sir Samuel refers to consultation through diplomatic channels and that the only purpose of such action would be a formal invocation of the Pact of Paris by all the signatories thereto for the purpose of mobilizing world opinion in the Italo-Ethiopian controversy. While [Page 768] this Government would not decline an invitation to consult through diplomatic channels with a view to the invocation of the Pact, we are of the opinion that consultation among the signatories of the Pact of Paris for any purpose other than that outlined above might appear to encroach upon the explicit functions of the Covenant of the League and of the members thereof, and it would therefore appear undesirable to endeavor to utilize the Pact of Paris as a substitute for the Covenant.
The clear intention of this Government to assist in the cause of peace through every practicable means was, of course, emphatically demonstrated by its intervention to bring about the withdrawal of an American company from the recently negotiated oil concession in Ethiopia.
It might be pointed out that the Johnson Act82 prohibits the granting of loans or credits by private American citizens or corporations to the Italian Government or to any organization on its behalf. Furthermore this Government has adopted the policy of not approving any credits through the Export-Import Bank in connection with shipments of commodities or products to Italy. Private institutions in this country have likewise adopted the attitude of restricting credits to Italian borrowers. Finally, the recent neutrality resolution would require an embargo on the exportation of arms, munitions, and implements of war to the original belligerents in case of war.
In general, this Government has also supplemented the foregoing acts and possible acts by moral support which we have consistently given to the efforts made to arrive at a peaceful settlement of the dispute and would continue this support by any act it could take in the light of its limitations as occasions arise.
- April 13, 1934; 48 Stat. 574.↩