Foreign Relations of the United States, Diplomatic Papers, 1940, The American Republics, Volume V

740.00111A.R.–N.C./16

The Secretary of State to the Director General of the Pan American Union (Rowe)

Washington, February 3, 1940.

My Dear Dr. Rowe: The receipt is acknowledged of your communication of January 26, 1940, enclosing a copy of an English translation of a cable communication⁴¹ received from Dr. Afranio de Mello Franco, Chairman of the Inter-American Committee on Neutrality, with reference to the duties of the Committee.

It is the view of this Department that the Committee may consider “the problems that come up by virtue of the Declaration of Panama relative to the Safety Zone” and that it might very well formulate “recommendations both as to the conditions that seem to give rise to the difficulties of assuring the observance of the Declaration of Panama, and as to the possible means and method of obtaining more easily and effectively the observance of the same Declaration on the part of the belligerents.”

Sincerely yours,

For the Secretary of State:

Sumner Welles

41. Printed in Minutes of the Sessions Held by the Inter-American Neutrality Committee, Appendix A, Law and Treaty Series No. 15, p. 68.