740.0011 Pacific War/841: Telegram
The Ambassador in Uruguay (Dawson) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 9—8:35 a.m.]
523. At 1 a.m. this morning Guani handed me the text of the following decree dated December 8th:
“In view of the communications received from the Embassy of the United States of America advising of the state of war existing between its country and the Japanese Empire from which it is evident that this state of war was commenced by the Japanese forces without prior declaration or notification of any kind contrary to the accepted [Page 113] principles of international law the precepts of which form the basis of the American community; considering that in view of the methods adopted by Japan this new state of war may be considered a veritable unprovoked aggression against an American country and that in accordance with the principles of continental solidarity this action perturbs the peace of the hemisphere and affects all the members of our community whereas, especially in the declaration of Lima signed December 24, 1938 there was proclaimed the common interest and the determination to make effective the solidarity of the American Republics in such cases and subsequently Resolution XV of the consultative meeting held at Habana in 1940 declared that any attack by a non-American state on the integrity, the territorial inviolability, the sovereignty or political independence of an American state, will be considered as an act of aggression against all the signatory states; considering furthermore that as respects the Government of the Republic the memorandum of the Uruguayan Foreign Office of June 21, last, suggested to all the nations of America that they expedite the means of giving a positive and concrete reality to these declarations of principles in concordance with the decree of June 18th, 1917 to the effect that no American country, finding itself in a state of war with nations of other continents in defense of its rights may be treated as a belligerent; the President of the Republic resolves and decrees:
- Article 1, the Government of the Republic declares its solidarity with the Government of the United States of America of the present conflict and will not consider it as a belligerent for the purpose of compliance with certain rules relating to neutrality;
- Article 2, consequently the provisions which conflict with the present decree especially those contained in the 13th Convention signed at The Hague October 18, 190764 shall not be applied;
- Article 3, to be communicated, published and recorded.
| Signed Baldomir | Alberto Guani.[”] |
- For text, see Foreign Relations, 1907, pt. 2, p. 1239.↩