765.84/1460: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in Ethiopia (Engert)
62. Your 106, September 29, 8 p.m. I fully appreciate your point of view and I assure you that we shall continue to exert our best efforts toward a peaceful solution. The circular telegram of September 1384 repeated to you by the Embassy at Paris, set forth the public steps which we have taken with this end in view. I assume that you have been able to reconstruct the various steps outlined in the circular from the daily radio bulletins which have been mailed to you.
For your personal and strictly confidential information I may add that as long ago as August 19 the Chargé d’Affaires at Rome delivered the following personal message from the President to Mussolini:
[Here follows the text of the President’s message to Mussolini, quoted in telegram No. 136, August 18, 1 p.m., to the Chargé in Italy, page 739.]
The effect of this message was negative. Mussolini repeated the usual Italian viewpoint and stated that it was now too late to avoid an [Page 770] armed conflict since Italy had mobilized a million men and had spent two billion lire.
In view of the foregoing I believe you will agree that action at this time along the lines of your present suggestion could not be expected to serve any useful purpose.
I believe you will be. interested in having by way of background certain thoughts which we have recently communicated to the Ambassador at London with regard to the general position of this Government. With reference to the question of consultation under the Pact of Paris we pointed out that presumably the only purpose of such action would be a formal invocation of the Pact by all the signatories thereto with the idea of mobilizing world opinion. It was explained that while we should not decline an invitation to consult through diplomatic channels with a view to the invocation of the Pact, we were inclined to believe that consultation for any other purpose than that outlined might appear to encroach upon the very definite functions of the Covenant of the League and of League members and that it would be undesirable to make use of the Pact as a substitute for the Covenant.
With regard to possible steps open to this Government with a view to limiting the duration and extent of an Italo-Ethiopian conflict, you are of course aware that the Johnson Act prohibits the granting of loans or credits by private American citizens or corporations to the Italian Government. Moreover, the Export-Import Bank has declined to approve credits in connection with the shipment of products to Italy. A similar attitude toward Italian borrowers has been adopted by many private institutions in this country. The recent neutrality resolution would require an embargo on the exportation of arms, munitions and implements of war to the original belligerents in the event of war.
We have given our moral support to all the efforts that have been made to arrive at a peaceful settlement, and we shall continue this support by any action which we can properly take in the light of our limitations as occasions arise.
- Not printed.↩