735.00/43: Airgram
The Ambassador in Argentina (Armour) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 11—11 a.m.]
A–332. At the ceremony celebrating the ninetieth anniversary of the Argentine Constitution held on May 1st at Santa Fé in the presence [Page 416] of President Castillo and high officials including several Cabinet Ministers, the Foreign Minister87 spoke for the Government. His academic remarks regarding the Constituent Convention of 1853, the influence on the Argentine Constitution of the American Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, and so forth, will be reported when the Embassy obtains the official Foreign Office copy of the speech. The following points bearing on present and future Argentine policy may be of interest to the Department.
In a discussion of Argentina’s representative government, which Dr. Ruiz Guiñazú admitted was not perfect, he made his first public anti-totalitarian pronouncement within the knowledge of the Embassy. Having admitted that Argentina’s representative government was not perfect and that political education in the world has not reached the grade of perfection to be desired, he stated flatly that such perfection is likewise not to be found “within the new orientation of the authoritarian states which give to their chiefs extraordinary faculties”. Continuing, “In our midst the totalitarian state, which absolutely subordinates the individual and the community to the idea of class, of nation, of race in the normal and juridical order and in that of politics and economy, could never prosper. Essentially pagan and as a consequence incompatible with the spirit of Christianity, it would lead to the omnipotence of the state in a blind and anxious destiny.” (At a press conference upon his return, Dr. Ruiz Guiñazú stated that he had welcomed the opportunity at Santa Fé to make it clear that the Argentine Government is not pro-Axis.)
Turning to foreign policy, Dr. Ruiz Guiñazú declared that in his opinion a practical or realistic policy, selfish as it may sound, “which should have as a basis universal economy, is the only one favorable to facilitate the elements of resurrection of that discipline today inoperative in international law, freeing us thus from the error of subordinating political and juridical solutions to the acceptance of Utopian ideas impossible to apply in the relations and activities of peoples.”
In speaking of this practical policy in the post-war effort the Minister said, “The war will ultimately bring about as the principal result an economic reorganization governing the entire world,” in which Argentina will work out its own destiny. He continued, “Every war has reserved to the victor an economic hegemony under the régime of which survive only those who can maintain their independence…1 without restrictions imposed by the will of other nations. Therefore the jealous care necessary in working with the nations whose parallel interests constitute a bond promising success.” He added, “We shall [Page 417] have our place and shall collaborate with the spirit of solidarity of the greatness of America called to give its name to the century in which we live… We have the right to a most ample influence in the future and it will be attained by new generations…”
Other speeches at the ceremony were by Leopoldo Melo, president of the Commission on the National Monument to the Constituents of 1853, and Joaquín Argonz, Governor of Santa Fé.