710.Consultation (3)A/283
The Under Secretary of State (Welles) to the American Member, Emergency Advisory Committee for Political Defense (Spaeth)
Dear Carl: I am grateful for your letter of February 18 recommending that some other republic be designated, in place of Argentina, to appoint a member of the Committee for Political Defense. I have given this matter considerable attention and discussed it with interested officers of the Department. Our ultimate conclusion coincides with yours.
However, for your strictly confidential information, no adequately satisfactory procedure has been apparent by which any member or members of the Union48 could assume the initiative for undertaking the informal and formal steps necessary to remove Argentina by formal action of the Governing Board. In the meantime, Aranha has tactfully suggested to the Argentine Ambassador to Brazil that Argentina might well consider a voluntary withdrawal. I think we should await the results of this suggestion, apart from the unresolved difficulties I mention concerning a forced change.
[Page 20]There is a lesser move upon which I would appreciate your views. I understand that the Committee plans to submit an annual report along in April. It has been suggested that one method of keeping the matter alive would be for the Committe to make brief reference in its report, in connection with the termination of the first year’s work, to the authority of the Governing Board to alter the membership under Article 3 of the Regulations of the Committee.
Naturally, I would want your personal reaction and an opportunity to consider it further here before any other mention were made of such a maneuver.
With warm regards [etc.]
- Pan American Union.↩