740.00111 A.R.N.C./161: Telegram
The Chargé in Brazil (Burdett) to the Secretary of State
[Received 3:55 p.m.]
42. Department’s telegram 23, January 16, 9 p.m. For the Under Secretary from Fenwick. Security Zone Convention already adopted by Neutrality Committee before receipt of telegram under reference. Would call attention, however, to fact that Habana Meeting6 asked Committee to submit merely a preliminary draft, permitting inference that governments would want to suggest changes before final draft submitted to signature. Hence the Department is entirely free to suggest alterations in the text. I would recommend, nevertheless, that instead of attempting to alter phrases in the convention, to prevent obvious conflicts with pending legislation, the Department could shelve the whole convention by delaying its return to the Committee. Committee will submit draft convention to Pan-American Union as confidential documents, with the request that the Union transmit it to the American Governments as confidential. Can delay arrival of convention at the Pan-American Union at least 1 month. [Fenwick.]
- See ibid., pp. 180 ff.; see also Second Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the American Republics, Habana, July 21–30, 1940, Report of the Secretary of State (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1941), pp. 6, 13–14, 59–60, and 67.↩