740.0011 European War 1939/18087: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Uruguay (Dawson)
1. From the Under Secretary. Your 594, December 31, 3 p.m.21 Please tell Dr. Guani22 with what great satisfaction I am looking forward to having the privilege of being associated with him at the [Page 10] Rio meeting. His presence there will be of the greatest value in achieving results beneficial to the cause of inter-American solidarity in these critical times.
Please tell him also that as always this Government desires to work in the closest cooperation with the Government of Uruguay at the approaching meeting. To this Government, the main issue presented to the American Republics in the emergency now existing, and in view of the fact that 10 of the 21 republics have declared war upon the Axis powers and 3 others have severed all relations with those powers, is whether the practical solidarity for which Uruguay and the United States have worked so hard during these past 9 years is to be a reality or not.
In the opinion of this Government the continued functioning of the Axis diplomatic and consular establishments in the Western Hemisphere creates under present conditions the gravest danger to the security of all of the republics and to the ability of the American governments to take necessary and adequate measures of defense. It is well known that Axis consular officials are reporting continuously on the movements of ships and on defense preparations. It is likewise notorious that the Axis diplomatic missions are engaging in every type of subversive activity and are intervening in the most blatant manner in the purely internal and domestic concerns of the countries where they are stationed in order to foment internal discord and to promote the existence of conditions which are in the highest degree prejudicial to the security of us all. With that in mind, this Government has under consideration the urgent need for the adoption of a resolution couched more or less in the following terms:
“Whereas: The American Republics in the ‘Declaration of Lima’23 proclaimed their determination to make effective their continental solidarity in case the peace, security, or territorial integrity of any American Republic is threatened;
The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the American Republics at Habana declared that any attempt on the part of a non-American state against the integrity or inviolability of the territory, the sovereignty or the political independence of an American state would be considered as an act of aggression against the other American states;
The concerted plans for world conquest on the part of the Governments of Germany, Italy, and Japan, members of the Tripartite Pact, have now suddenly been placed in execution against the Western Hemisphere through the treacherous attack committed by Japan upon the United States and by the declaration of war immediately thereafter against the United States by the Governments of Germany and of Italy.
[Page 11]The Third Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the American Republics
Resolves: First. The American Republics declare that they regard these acts of aggression against one of the American Republics as acts of aggression against all of them and as an immediate threat to the liberty and independence of the Western Hemisphere.
Second. The American Republics reaffirm their complete unity and their determination to cooperate closely for their mutual protection until the existing menace has been totally destroyed.
Third. They have determined that those non-American states at war with nations in the Western Hemisphere have forfeited all right to treatment as nations with which friendly relations can be continued.
Fourth. Consequently, they announce that by reason of their solidarity and for the purpose of protecting and preserving the freedom and integrity of the twenty-one Republics of the Americas, relations, whether political, commercial, or financial, can no longer be maintained by any of them with Germany, Italy, and Japan, and they likewise declare that, with full respect for their respective sovereignty, they will individually or collectively take such further steps for the defense of the New World as may in each instance seem to them desirable and practicable.”
Please ask Dr. Guani to regard this draft as confidential and as preliminary and say that I shall be most grateful if he would let me have, through you, as soon as possible his opinion with regard thereto and any suggestions or counter-proposals which he would care to make. It is my present impression that this draft would receive the support of the overwhelming majority of the American governments. [Welles.]
- Not printed.↩
- Alberto Guani, Uruguayan Minister for Foreign Affairs.↩
- Declaration of the Principles of the Solidarity of America, approved December 24, 1938, Report of the Delegation of the United States of America to the Eighth International Conference of American States, Lima, Peru, December 9–27, 1938 (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1941), p. 189.↩