852.00/2699: Telegram
The Minister in Uruguay (Lay) to the Secretary of State
[Received 1:12 p.m.]
34. Referring to my telegram No. 32, August 17, 2 p.m., Minister of Foreign Affairs in press interview yesterday issued additional statement regarding his proposal in view of comments in certain [Page 496] quarters to the effect that proposal was motivated by reasons other than those set forth by him. Following is full text of statement:
“It is being said that the gesture of this chancellery has some basis other than that to be understood from its terms. I can assure you that it has no motive beyond that already known: the motives of sentiment which are evident in the communication and which very often are beyond the grasp of reason itself.
I want to emphasize the nature of the mediation of the Uruguayan Government because it has not been sufficiently understood. As heretofore said in an interview in this same newspaper a few days ago, it is not a question of a juridical mediation, which would not be applicable except in the case of two bodies in conflict under international law, that is, in this emergency, after the belligerency of the contestants had been recognized. This is a gesture intended solely to submit to the American chancelleries the question of how to proceed for the purpose of bringing about the termination of the Spanish Civil War with the least possible delay.
In the present state of affairs if the gesture were to be acted upon the American Governments would approach only the Spanish Government, which is the legal government recognized by our country. The situation may change at any moment, since it is at the mercy of so fortuitous a circumstance as the result of armed encounter, but at present it is as I have said. The meeting of American delegates would be for the purpose of discussing procedure, the most effective modus operandi for serving the high purpose pursued.
I do not ignore the great difficulties which will rise in the path of the initiative, but I deem those much greater which will be created by the termination of the war by violence and arms, with the horrible aftermath which even now can be discerned in perspective.
I do not consider a conciliatory solution out of the question. In many quarters the political structure of the present government of Spain is accepted, and this constitutes a great common basis. The regional problem would not be impossible of solution within the regime of the Spanish nation. And the conflict of ideals, which arises more than anything else from material circumstances—from the deficient distribution of wealth in Spain and from the poverty in which may of its regions exist, could be solved by great and good social and agrarian reforms. In any event the Uruguayan Government places all its fervent sentiments back of the task it proposes to initiate.”