740.00111 A.R./1152
The Minister in Guatemala (Des Portes) to the Secretary of State
No. 1268
Guatemala, May 22,
1940.
[Received May 27.]
Sir: With reference to my telegram No. 43, May
20, 1 p.m., and to the Department’s telegram No. 34, May 21, 4 p.m., I
have the honor to enclose herewith a copy and translation of the
memorandum which the German Minister handed to the Foreign Minister on
May 20, with respect to the protest of the American Republics against
the invasion of the Low Countries. The original memorandum, which was
shown to me by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, was written in Spanish;
[Page 789] the original copy of it
given me by the Foreign Minister was prepared in the Foreign Office.
The Foreign Minister informed me that the German Minister had stated to
him that the memorandum was presented under instructions from the German
Government. The wording of the memorandum would seem to confirm this
statement. It is therefore peculiar that no similar memorandum seems to
have been presented by [to?] any other American
Republic.
The Department’s attention is particularly invited to the extraordinary
wording of the penultimate paragraph of the memorandum.
Respectfully yours,
[Enclosure—Translation]
Memorandum by the German Minister in Central
America (Reinebeck) to the
Guatemalan Minister for Foreign Affairs (Salazar)
To its profound regret, the Government of the Reich has learned that
the German preventative act in Holland and Belgium has given rise to
the following acts in America:
- 1)
- The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Argentine Republic
proposed that the American States should abandon the concept
of neutrality maintained up to the present time, which had
come to be a mere fiction, and that they should adopt a
state of “non-belligerency”.
- 2)
- The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Uruguay suggested a
common protest of the American Republics against the German
act in Holland and Belgium.37 The
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Panama, in
turn, has transmitted the suggestion to all of the American
Governments in order that the latter may state their
respective positions; and among others, the High Government
of Guatemala also by a Note on the fifteenth of the present
month, addressed to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of
Panama, expressly adhered to this proposal.
The Government of Germany must refute as unfounded the (step of)
protest suggested on the part of Uruguay, in as much as its action,
against which this country is objecting, is fully justified by the
reasons explained in detail in the German Memoranda of the tenth of
May delivered to the Belgian and Dutch Governments as well as in the
annexes to these.38 As explained in these two
Memoranda, Germany had recognized and respected the sovereignty of
Belgium and Holland as long as both countries observed the most
strict neutrality. However, [Page 790] Belgium and Holland had not maintained this neutral position, but
had unilaterally favored the adversaries of Germany and acquiesced
in their intentions. The information of the German High Command,
which was brought to the attention of the Government of the Reich,
and which was added to the Memorandum, contained a resume of the
violations of neutrality of both countries, the tenor of which may
be inferred from No. 168 of the bulletins of information of the
press section of the German Legation, which is enclosed with the
present (Memorandum).39 In view of the situation
explained above, the Government of the Reich was no longer able to
doubt that Belgium and the Netherlands had not only resolved to
tolerate an imminent Franco-British attack against the Basin of the
Ruhr through their own territories but also actively to favor it.
Additional and irrefutable documents proving such intention to
attack of England and France, and the participation of the two
supposedly neutral Governments, which had in the meantime come into
the hands of German troops, will shortly be published.
The Government of Germany, being unable passively to await this
planned attack, in consequence ordered its troops to ensure by all
the military means in their power the neutrality of both countries.
It has declared that the German troops have not come as enemies of
the Belgian and Netherlands peoples, and that it would not infringe
the sovereignty of these countries, either for the present or in the
future.
In as much as it is consequently not a question of a German invasion,
as the Uruguayan Minister of Foreign Affairs alleges, but of the
frustration of an invasion systematically prepared by England and France, the German Government must
consider such steps of third governments against its action
without object, and therefore consider the participation in such
transactions a markedly unfriendly act for which there is no
reason.40
The Government of the Reich has ample motives to suppose that the
attitude of the Government of Uruguay is based upon certain foreign
influences tending to create a feeling in the Latin American States
that this Continent might be threatened by Germany. It is not
necessary to go into details regarding this argument, the
inconsistency and absurdity of which is patent. I wish only to
confine myself to expressing the hope of the Government of the Reich
that those States which maintain friendly relations with Germany
will pay no attention to propaganda against the German Government
which arises from personal motives of hatred of certain foreign
politicians.
