711.0012 Anti-War/1553
Statement to the Press by the Secretary of State
With reference to the critical situation involving countries in Central Europe, I desire to say that the Government of the United States has been following recent developments with close and anxious attention.
Nearly ten years ago the Government of the United States signed at Paris a treaty providing for the renunciation of war as an instrument [Page 521] of national policy.62 There are now parties to that treaty no less than 63 countries. In that treaty the contracting parties agree that “the settlement or solution of all disputes or conflicts of whatever nature or of whatever origin they may be, which may arise among them, shall never be sought except by pacific means.” That pledge is no less binding now than when it was entered into. It is binding upon all of the parties.
We can not shut our eyes to the fact that any outbreak of hostilities anywhere in the world injects into world affairs a factor of general disturbance the ultimate consequence of which no man can foresee and is liable to inflict upon all nations incalculable and permanent injuries.
The people of this country have in common with all nations a desire for stable and permanent conditions of peace, justice and progress, and a most earnest desire that peace be maintained no matter where or in what circumstances there may be controversies between nations.
- Treaty signed August 27, 1928; Foreign Relations, 1928, vol. i, p. 153.↩