710 Consultation 3(A)/681a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Uruguay ( Dawson )
158. For Sanders from Spaeth. Reference Department’s 113 of February 28, 2 p.m. The Department appreciates the importance Dr. Guani attaches to the Argentine situation as a matter of hemispheric concern. The Department began consultations on that basis and was gratified that its action was favorably viewed by Dr. Guani.
As a result of the consultations so inaugurated, seven of the American republics (as well as Great Britain and Canada) have publicly announced that they are abstaining from normal diplomatic relations with the Farrell regime. Excluding Chile and Paraguay, the remaining participating republics are following that course in fact, although they are disinclined for varying reasons so to state publicly. However, their reluctance to issue a statement does not appear to imply any tendency toward present defection.
In these circumstances, it would seem that a Committee resolution to invoke consultations under Resolution XXII would be anticlimactic, both for the Committee and the governments, in view of the advanced stage of the consultations already undertaken. It is equally questionable that it would assist in eliciting more statements. Moreover, such a resolution would accent the isolated positions already assumed [Page 12] by Chile and Paraguay and probably militate against rather than toward their realignment. These views are apart from the substantial question whether the Ramírez resignation was the result of force within the meaning of Resolution XX.39
While, therefore, the Department doubts the suitability of a Committee resolution as an effective approach, it agrees that careful consideration must be given to alternative methods of treating the underlying problems in inter-American fashion. The Department will want to continue to receive Dr. Guam’s counsel in this regard, as developments occur.
Please convey the sense of the foregoing to him. [Spaeth.]
- This resolution dealt with the detention and expulsion of dangerous criminals; for text, see Annual Report, p. 73.↩