740.0011 E.W./2–245: Telegram

The Ambassador in Chile (Bowers) to the Secretary of State

160. Foreign Office has sent me 9-page aide-mémoire deprecating press use of the descriptive term “united and associated American nations.” (See Department’s 41, January 12.) By juridical argument it seeks to prove (a) that all the adherents to Resolution XV of Habana,68 having abandoned neutrality for non-belligerency, are in defensive alliance with the American power attacked; (b) that among them no distinction should be made between those which have declared war [Page 760] and those which have fulfilled their obligations by breaking relations, instituting controls, contributing materials, et cetera; and (c) that the term “associated nations” smacks of Versailles69 and is outmoded by existing relationship among the American States.

I am forwarding copy70 by pouch and shall not telegraph text unless so instructed.

Bowers
  1. Resolution for Reciprocal Assistance and Cooperation for the Defense of the Nations of the Americas, included in the Final Act of the Second Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the American Republics, held at Habana, July 21–30, 1940; for text of Resolution, see Department of State Bulletin, August 24, 1940, p. 136.
  2. Treaty of Peace Between the Allied and Associated Powers and Germany, signed at Versailles, June 28, 1919, Foreign Relations, The Paris Peace Conference, 1919, vol. xiii, p. 55. The preamble to this Treaty listed “the Principal Allied and Associated Powers”, followed by a list of the other “Allied and Associated Powers”.
  3. As enclosure to despatch 11606, February 2; not printed.