Office of the Historian

711.00 Statement July 16, 1937/210

The Belgian Minister for Foreign Affairs and Foreign Commerce (Spaak) to the American Chargé in Belgium (Sussdorff)72

[Translation]
Department P
No. 452/610/5360
Brussels, August 2, 1937.

Mr. Chargé d’Affaires: In the course of a conversation which you had on July nineteenth73 last, with Mr. van Langenhove, Secretary [Page 742] General of my Department, you requested him to communicate to me the statement made at Washington on July 16 by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, defining the principles on which the peace policy of the United States is based and the aims of this policy: peaceful settlement of disputes, observance of international engagements, decreasing of excessive obstacles to international trade, equality of treatment, limitation and reduction of armaments, and international cooperation apart from all alliances.

The speeches of Belgian statesmen on many occasions bring out the perfect harmony existing in this respect between the peace policy of the United States and that of Belgium. I am happy to give you an assurance that His Majesty’s Government can subscribe point by point to the declarations of Mr. Hull and that it is ready, as in the past, within the means at its disposal, to cooperate with the Government of the United States with a view to the attainment of the desired ends.

Accept [etc.]

P. H. Spaak
  1. Transmitted to the Department by the Chargé in his despatch No. 6, August 9; received August 17.↩
  2. See telegram No. 54, July 19, 3 p.m., from the Chargé in Belgium, p. 701.↩