740.00111 A.R.–N.C./7: Telegram

The Ambassador in Brazil (Caffery) to the Secretary of State

28. My 25, January 17, 2 p.m. In a neutrality subcommittee meeting last evening the Argentine delegate submitted as a basis for the Committee’s deliberations a lengthy project for a comprehensive neutrality code, covering land and aerial as well as maritime problems. It appealed to a number of the members to proceed on this basis. However, Fenwick, who must leave here by February 6 at the latest, is endeavoring to persuade the Committee to take up first the immediate problems involved in the Declaration of Panama, finish them this month if possible and then perhaps proceed with a comprehensive codification if the Committee continues indefinitely.

He says that he could not return to Rio de Janeiro later to remain indefinitely unless he could make some arrangement other than the present one in which he must pay the salary of a substitute at his college while giving his time gratuitously to the neutrality conference. Three other members also wish to leave Rio next month and two of those who do not wish to return.

Caffery