710.H Agenda/165
The Chargé in Argentina (Tuck) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 12.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer to the Embassy’s despatches No. 2257 of October 21 and No. 2266 of October 27, 1938, in which particular [Page 37] reference was made to a project which the Argentine Delegation intends to support at the Lima Conference, with a view to amplifying neutral consultation as provided for in Article II of the Convention for the Maintenance, Preservation and Reestablishment of Peace, signed at Buenos Aires in December, 1936.
From the information received indirectly from one of the Argentine delegates to the Lima Conference, I learn that while the project to amplify neutral consultation has not as yet taken definite form, the delegates are at present at work on establishing a draft text. This report was confirmed yesterday by Dr. Gache, the Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs, who informed me that no text has as yet been adopted.
I am informed on the best of authority that the project is definitely the personal idea of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dr. Cantilo, and was conceived by him with a view to blocking Central American and Colombian support for a League of American Nations and an International Court, both of which ideas the Argentine Government strongly opposes.
From the same source I learn that the Argentine Delegation does not intend to press its draft at Lima provided the two objectionable projects above mentioned can be side tracked. In this case the Delegation would be prepared to allow its draft to become a Conference recommendation or resolution which would express a pious “hope” that Foreign Ministers of American states will meet when convenient.
Respectfully yours,