710. Consultation (2)/632
The French Ambassador ( De Saint-Quentin ) to the Acting Secretary of State
Pursuant to instructions from his Government, the Ambassador of France has the honor to make the following communication to His Excellency the Secretary of State:
Under the terms of the Act and of the Convention adopted on the 30th of July, last, by the Habana Conference, the Governments of the American Republics reserve to themselves the right to judge in certain eventualities whether the American possessions of European States shall be subjected to a system of provisional administration in the name of those Republics.61
The French Government, the national patrimony of which includes a certain number of territories forming part of the American Continent, deems it necessary to define in an official manner its position regarding the resolutions voted at Habana. It does so in full consciousness of the traditional friendship which binds France to the American Republics.
The French territories in America have constituted, since the seventeenth century, an integral part of France, which has constantly shown them even in the dark moments of her history an attentive solicitude. She has been recompensed therefor by the affection and the devotion of the inhabitants who have long possessed the quality of French citizens.
The clauses of the armistice conventions do not at all affect the political situation of those territories and there is no reason to believe that the treaties of peace will modify those statutes. The French Government does not disregard either the present preoccupations of the American Governments nor their anxiety to safeguard the pacific development of the new continent. As in the past, it is disposed to collaborate with them with a view to the maintenance of peace and security in those regions but that collaboration must have as its basis mutual respect for the sovereign rights of each State.
[Page 500]The conviction of the French Government is that in the state of instability in which the whole world finds itself it is to the common interest to respect in America the established order. Any attempt, even one presented as a provisional measure, to modify that order against the will of one of the interested parties might occasion not only in the territories in question but also at other points in the world reactions the course of which would be capable of adding new and serious possibilities of disturbance to the present difficulties.
The French Government has particularly in view the repercussions which any modification of the established order in America might have on the Far East where the maintenance of the status quo appears to be to the interest of the United States as well as to that of France.
Mr. de Saint-Quentin is happy to avail himself of this opportunity to renew to the Honorable Sumner Welles the assurances of his highest consideration.
- See Department of State Executive Agreement Series No. 199, or 54 Stat. 2491.↩