840.50/2439: Telegram
The Ambassador in Uruguay ( Dawson ) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 25—10:55 a.m.]
766. Department’s circular telegram of August 5, 9 p.m. Serrato25 sent for me this afternoon to inform me as to the position of Uruguay regarding the Colombian proposal, this being the first time he has mentioned the matter to me.
[Page 49]He has declined to join in the proposed action which he has viewed from the outset and still regards as an attempt to form a “league” for the purpose of imposing conditions on the United States and other United Nations in return for collaboration. He said that he is opposed to blocs in America and that he considers it inopportune and indelicate to bring pressure or seek assurances and concessions from the United Nations at a time when they are devoting all their energies to winning the war.
I informed Serrato of the Department’s position as set forth in its telegram of August 5. He said that he would have had no objection to informal consultations in Washington among the respective Ambassadors and with the Department but that the Colombian proposal as presented to him went far beyond this.
I have of course asked myself whether any Argentine influence or consideration for Argentina may have played any part in Serrato’s decision. I doubt this. The excerpts of telegrams which he read me seem to show clearly that he was opposed to the Colombian proposal from the very outset for the reasons which he gave me.
Serrato requests that the information furnished by him be treated as strictly confidential.
- José Serrato, Uruguayan Minister for Foreign Affairs.↩