710.H/44: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Uruguay (Dawson)
10. From the Under Secretary. Your 24, March 11, 6 p.m. By instruction from his new Foreign Minister, the Argentine Ambassador [Page 5] here made an informal and confidential inquiry of this Government as to what the attitude of the United States would be in the event that the Argentine Government suggested the postponement of the Lima Conference. The cause of the inquiry appeared to be Dr. Cantilo’s concern lest the projects for an Association of American Nations and for the creation of an Inter-American Court might give rise to serious conflict of opinions at the Conference next December.
I informed the Argentine Ambassador in reply that the general attitude of this Government in the matter was that it would be glad to abide by the wishes of the other American nations but that from the information which I had obtained it would certainly seem that many of the American Governments were anxious to have the Conference held next December and that the Peruvian Government, particularly because of domestic considerations, would object to any postponement of the Conference. The Ambassador also said that Dr. Cantilo felt that in view of the general world situation the holding of an inter-American Conference next autumn might be unwise. To this I replied that it seemed to this Government that at a time of world unrest it was all the more important for the American nations to maintain a close and continuing contact with one another.
The Ambassador gave me as his own personal opinion the impression that the Argentine Government itself was not interested in securing a postponement of the Conference and that the initiative in this regard had come solely from Dr. Cantilo.
In any reply you make to the Uruguayan Foreign Office you may repeat in general terms the views which I expressed to the Argentine Ambassador.