710 Consultation (3)A/8–1544: Telegram

The Ambassador in Uruguay ( Dawson ) to the Secretary of State

771. Watkins, Spaeth from Sanders. The following is draft of communication to Federation and Union relative Argentine membership:

“My dear Mr. Secretary: I have the honor to inform Your Excellency that at the regular meeting of the International Congress the Emergency Advisory Committee for Political Defense resolved to transmit following communication to the Governments of the American Republics and the Pan American Union.

A difficult problem has arisen which affects the basic principles of the organization and the objectives of the Emergency Advisory Committee for Political Defense and which the Committee therefore considers should be submitted to the governments which created it and to [the] Pan American Union for their information and whatever decision may be deemed appropriate.

As clearly and specifically set forth in Resolution XVII of the Third Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the American Republics,68 the sole and exclusive purpose for which the Committee was created is that of advising Governments of the twenty-one American Republics in the realization of an effective political defense against the Axis aggressors, Germany, Japan, Italy and their satellites. This Resolution, which constitutes the basic charter of the Committee, was approved unanimously and without reservations by the twenty-one American Governments and express[es] the will of American Republics to adopt every means to combat effectively, individually and collectively the political and military attack of the said aggressor states.

The Regulations of the Committee as prepared by the Pan American Union and likewise approved unanimously by all the Republics, specifically incorporate the above mentioned Resolution stating that it ‘defines the scope and purpose of the Committee’.

Of equal importance with the controlling policy directives contained in Resolution XVII is the following principle of the Committee’s organization, defined in article II of the Regulations: insert text of article II of Regulations.69

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With respect to this article the Committee understands that the principle of representation therein formulated is a necessary consequence of its character as an international body of limited membership which has a task of advising the twenty-one Governments on the implementation of a general policy to which all the said governments are committed. In all its deliberations and decisions the Committee has fully recognized the implications of this fact, namely that it has an obligation to act in the name and in the interest of the twenty-one Republics, without distinction of any kind, and that in order to achieve this impartiality of representation it must be guided exclusively by the [policy] directives approved by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs at Rio de Janeiro. It follows that the members of the Committee are not mere agents or delegates of the designating governments but must represent, in fact as well as in theory, all of the Republics equally.

The member appointed by the Government of the Argentine Republic has, however, found it impossible to support the policy directives of Resolution XVII and consequently to act as the representative of the collective interest of the Continent which they define. In view of the basic divergence between these directives and the attitude of the Argentine Government with respect to the present world conflict, the said member has found it necessary to consider himself the ‘delegate’ of the country which named him and therefore compelled to reflect that attitude. He has as a consequence considered himself bound to oppose or unable to favor measures directed against some Axis aggressors and their nationals by which the Committee has sought to implement the declared policy of the American Republics.

Likewise, in view of the said attitude of the Government of the Argentine Republic, the Committee has found it impossible to represent and function, pursuant to its controlling policy directives, article II of its Regulations, on behalf and in the interest of the Argentine Government with reference to the concept of national and continental interest reflected in that attitude.

The Committee expected that the severance of relations with the Axis by the Argentine Republic would enable the member designated by that Government to join fully and without qualifications in the work of his colleagues. However, this has not been the case. The previous situation has not changed. Indeed, because of the inability of the member designated by the Argentine Government to participate in its work and his consequent absence from its sessions, the Committee is, in fact, now operating as an organization of six members rather than of seven as created by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs at Rio de Janeiro.

In view of the anomalous situation described in the present communication the Committee has resolved to call the attention of the Governments of the American Republics and of the Pan American Union to the problem and to suggest that the Argentine Republic may desire to be relieved of the responsibility of maintaining a member on this Committee.[”]

[Sanders]
Dawson
  1. For text of Resolution XVII, see Annual Report, July 1943, p. 259.
  2. Ibid., p. 268.