711.00 Statement July 16, 1937/102
Statement by the Dominican Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Bonetti Burgos) to the American Chargé in the Dominican Republic (Atwood)87
The Dominican Government, under the inspiration and direction of President Trujillo Molina, illustrious statesman who has given [Page 752] singular demonstration of his love for the cause of justice and international order, has not weakened nor will it weaken at any time its cooperation to as many efforts as are realized, not only on the American Continent but in any part of the world, in favor of the maintenance and the consolidation of peace, whose benefits extend to all people and whose conservation must be, as a consequence, a common ideal of all nations. A threat against peace no matter in what continent or what country it is produced, necessarily has universal repercussions and all governments, even the least directly affected by such an act, are obligated to condemn it as the violation of a principle of international ethics according to which the differences and conflicts which arise between the nations must be resolved in accordance with pacific procedure and the friendly formulas that right and morality place within the reach of all states.
The Dominican Government identifies itself with the declarations made on the sixteenth of last July by the Secretary of State of the United States of America, His Excellency Cordell Hull, which are in essence a ratification of the ideas of mutual respect and of sincere pacific collaboration which inspired the recent Conference at Buenos Aires, and is pleased to proclaim, in view of the conflicts that agitate other continents and place in danger the tranquillity of the world, its decided and loyal adherence to the cause of peace, to the noble postulates of justice and of law, to the principle of non-intervention by any country in the internal or external affairs of another, and of the sanctity of international pacts whose reform should not be effected except by absolute submission to legal norms when necessity thus requires it, or when their provisions reflect upon the dignity or the sovereignty of any state or which may be opposed in practice to the reassuring realities of mutual respect and solidarity of nations.
- Copy transmitted to the Department by the Chargé in his despatch No. 3969, August 4; received August 6.↩