740.00111 A.R./119: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Venezuela (Corrigan)
79. Personal for the Ambassador from the Under Secretary. Your 95, September 9, 1 p.m. Please see the Minister for Foreign Affairs as soon as possible and tell him that while I am most happy to know that Venezuela will participate in the Panama meeting and that we may thereby have the invaluable benefit of the assistance and cooperation of the Government of Venezuela in the deliberations of the meeting, I am somewhat concerned as to the reasons for the feeling expressed to you by the Minister that he is “unconvinced of the need of holding a conference at this time.” It has seemed to this Government that the outbreak of any general European war clearly constitutes a potential menace to the peace of this continent and it was for that [Page 24] reason that this Government strongly supported the idea of an early consultation as provided for in the Convention and Declaration of Buenos Aires and in the Declaration of Lima. Prior to the declaration of war, several governments had approached the Government of the United States indicating their belief that consultation should take place as provided for in the Convention of Buenos Aires, and others publicly announced their belief in the same sense. Immediately after the declaration of war, this Government informed the governments referred to that it was ready to join in a request for consultation and suggested that the Government of Panama be the intermediary in this case.
If there had been more time available, this Government would have immediately undertaken an exchange of views with the Government of Venezuela, but in view of the urgency of the situation and in view of the most helpful and cooperative attitude always shown by the Government of Venezuela in all questions affecting the welfare of the continent and particularly in view of the position taken by the Government of Venezuela in both the Buenos Aires and the Lima Conferences, this Government assumed that the Government of Venezuela would coincide in its own belief that consultation at the earliest possible date would be desirable.
Please say to the Minister that I personally had hoped that I might have the privilege of working with him at the Panama meeting and that I still hope there may be some chance that he may find it possible to attend in representation of his Government. You may add that there is no statesman on the continent whose presence at Panama would, in my judgment, be more conducive to an outcome of the meeting which would prove in the highest interest of all the American Republics. [Welles.]