852.00/6314: Telegram
The Minister in Uruguay (Lay) to the Secretary of State
[Received 4:39 p.m.]
34. I received at 1:00 p.m. today a note from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, dated August 27, stating that the Uruguayan Government through its Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Montevideo has sent to the Governments of the American Republics a proposal the text of which I am requested to forward as soon as possible and which reads as follows:
“(Translation). The Government of Uruguay has the honor to address the Government of your Republic through the worthy intermediary of Your Excellency proposing to it a joint declaration on the part of the American Governments of the recognition of belligerency in favor of the two parties in civil strife in Spain.
This recognition is founded primarily on the de facto situation which continues and on a de jure situation resulting from the international relations which both governments maintain with other states which not only have recognized their belligerency on land, sea, and in the air, but have recognized them as stable governments.
It is unquestionable that it is not a matter of two parties in civil war, as up to now, but of two public powers which are settling by arms the definition of their respective positions on Spanish territory.
Furthermore, the declaration which the Uruguayan Government proposes assumes not only rights on the part of the new belligerents but also the requirement of duties correlative to their new international status.
The work of pacification itself will be aided by the declaration which I have the honor to propose to Your Excellency’s Government.
The American nations would take a definite step along the road to respect for international standards in recognizing the reality in fact and in law in the Spain of today.
Your Excellency is requested to transmit to your Government the preceding proposal, with the sincere expression of my high consideration”.