711.00 Statement July 16, 1937/136
The Honduran Minister for Foreign Affairs (Bermúdez) to the American Chargé in Honduras (Cramp)74
Honorable Sir: This Secretariat of State has been favored with the very kind note of Your Honor, No. 147, dated July 24 ultimo, with which was enclosed the statements made by His Excellency Cordell Hull, Secretary of State of the United States of America, the 16th of the same month, reading as follows:
[Here follows the Spanish text of the statement of July 16.]
Your Honor expressed the desire of His Excellency Mr. Cordell Hull that the several Governments examine these statements and make such comment as they deem opportune in the belief that the opinions of the different countries can influence favorably the solution of present problems which, though affecting Nations far away, are unquestionably of interest to all peoples.
The Honduran Government has studied the declarations of His Excellency Mr. Cordell Hull with all the attention which their importance [Page 743] demands and, with the greatest pleasure, stipulates its adherence to the principles which are consecrated in them, which constitute at present a standard of international life of the countries of America.
Without forgetting the relativity of the resources of the population, capital, industrial progress, and sources of natural wealth, which facilitate and favor the conduct of international interdependence, Honduras has maintained at all times the principles of the Eight of Peoples (Derecho de Gentes) and has consecrated in the fullest manner her unrestricted tribute of respect for treaties and for arbitration decisions under the guaranty of international good faith and of respect for contractual obligations.
Obvious proof of the strong desire of Honduras for international concord is found in the ratification, without reservations on her part, of treaties of peace and antiwar during the period of time which was initiated with the Treaty of Paris (Kellogg-Briand Pact of August 28 [27] 1928) and was ended with the treaties, protocols, and conventions of Buenos Aires in 1936.
Honduras has concurred with great pleasure in the idea of the suppression of customs barriers and the equality of tariffs for the efficacious development of commerce between nations without more limitations than those which arise obligatorily from immediate national necessities and from the character of her own capacities within the structure of her integral nature, population, and institutions. And in this manner she accepts, in its own and logical meaning, the concept of equality of opportunities, to which with reason all countries hold in their international relations.
Granting the most important concurrence with the points with respect to which the declarations of the Secretary of State of the United States of America constitute a spontaneous restriction of the policy of his country and a most effective getting together by understanding among nations, the Honduran Government takes the opportunity to make, finally, the frank declaration that in her relations with other nations her policy is, without vacillations, inspired by the principles of mutual support and equable reciprocity, the only effective manner of cooperation which facilitates for each country the international development of its own energies and capacities.
I beg Your Honor to bring to the attention of His Excellency Mr. Cordell Hull, American Secretary of State, the enthusiastic adherence of the Honduran Government to his statement of principles on last July 16.