711.00 Statement July 16, 1937/105
The Guatemalan Minister for Foreign Affairs (Salazar) to the American Minister in Guatemala (Des Portes)68
Mr. Minister: I have had the honor to receive the kind note of Your Excellency No. 67 of July 23,69 in which you sent me a copy of the declaration given to the press on the sixteenth by His Excellency Mr. Cordell Hull, Secretary of State, in which is amply and concretely defined the attitude of the Government of the United States vis-à-vis the disturbances existing in international relations in various parts of the world.
Your Excellency was so kind as to add that you have instructions to inform me that you would be very glad to forward to Washington the comment relative to the principles established in the declaration or such information as I might be able to give you relative to the attitude of the Government of Guatemala in maintaining and making effective such principles. Your Excellency informs me that His Excellency Mr. Hull requests you to point out to me the expression of his belief that my Government and I fully share in the support given by the Government of the United States to the principles set forth in the statement, many of which indeed form an essential portion of the agreements reached at the Conference of Buenos Aires for the Maintenance of Peace and all of which are consonant with the treaties and resolutions there adopted. Your Excellency finally adds that His Excellency the Secretary of State believes it is singularly fitting at this critical time that as many nations of the world as possible make known publicly their support of these principles of international conduct and policy, and that he would therefore welcome such action as my Government may find appropriate in making known its effective support of them.
In answer I can only inform Your Excellency that the Government of Guatemala has learned with the greatest pleasure of the declaration [Page 739] of His Excellency Mr. Cordell Hull because in it is found the most perfect definition of the international politics which the Government of Guatemala has adopted and followed as an invariable and rigid standard of conduct in its relations with all of the countries of the world. The President of Guatemala in his annual messages to the Legislative Assembly and on other occasions which have presented themselves has declared emphatically that the Government of Guatemala, to the end of intensifying in every way possible the cordiality and the good understanding with other nations, does not overlook the means of adjusting itself to the consecrated doctrines of international law and for that it has held itself strictly apart from the internal affairs of other States, above all with respect to contiguous nations, with which it cultivates warm friendship.
The Government of Guatemala, over which General Ubico presides, considers that the important declaration which His Excellency Mr. Cordell Hull has given to the press of the United States summarizes in concrete and comprehensive form the standards adopted by the American Government looking to the consolidation of the peace of America and for saving the peace of the world; and it believes as well that the declaration constitutes a Creed which contains the fundamental bases of an international policy of healthy and prudent equanimity and that to observe the standards adopted would result in a great betterment in the unstable conditions which unfortunately endanger the cordiality and good understanding among the nations engaged in the contention of extensive economic, political and social interests.
Since Your Excellency has been kind enough to communicate to me the desire of His Excellency the Secretary of State that the largest number possible of nations make known publicly their attitude respecting the principles proclaimed by him I will be pleased to give to the press of Guatemala the kind note of Your Excellency, the declaration of His Excellency Mr. Hull, and this reply.
I avail myself [etc.]