Office of the Historian

835.00/2–1746: Telegram

The Chargé in Argentina (Cabot) to the Secretary of State

Buenos Aires, February 17, 1946.
[Received 1:58 p.m.]

518. Following is official text of communiqué71 issued last night by Foreign Office in re Blue Book. Communiqué, according to press, had been approved at Cabinet meeting earlier in day.

“The Government of the Nation, which does not yet know the official text of the Blue Book which the Government of the United States of America has published, and which at the proper time will be the object of the observations and rectifications which are proper, deems it appropriate to declare:

1.
That it considers unusual in its nature, and contrary to the practices of international law in procedure, the publication of the Department of State of the Republic of the North.
2.
That the Blue Book signifies, rather than an analysis of an international case, an interference in internal Affairs of our country, which violates the sovereignty of a state which respects and defends the juridical equality of nations and which has been characterized, in its relations with the republics of America, by its spirit of brotherhood, traditionally pacifist.
3.
That the timing of the publication has caused, in great part of public opinion, the concern that its purpose may be to influence decisions which lie exclusively in the will of the Argentine people, called to elections for the 24th of the current month, in conformity with the provisions of the Saenz Peña law, which gives justice a preeminent role for their application, elections the fairness and legality of which the government and armed institutions of the nation have promised, and are firmly resolved, to guarantee.
4.
That the Government of the Revolution is fulfilling and will fulfill faithfully the international commitments contracted by the republic by virtue of its adherence to the Conference of Mexico and its presence at that of San Francisco,75 and is in a position to prove to the governments of the sister republics and of the other United Nations the efficacy and sincerity of its conduct.
5.
That this attitude and disposition authorize it to demand of all nations the same respect for the reciprocal commitments contracted, and in particular those pertaining to the obligation not to intervene in the Affairs of its internal politics.
6.
That it rejects as injurious to the dignity of the nation, unjustified and inaccurate accusations, at the same time that it declares that attitudes of this kind compromise the good neighbor policy to which the Republic has lent its most enthusiastic and decided support.
7.
That the Argentine Government considers the situation with absolute serenity, convinced that the time will come when there will be appreciation of the honesty of its procedure, directed toward strengthening inter-American solidarity and assuring the reestablishment in the country of the democratic principles, which are consubstantial with the essence and origin of all the republics of the continent”.

Cabot
  1. In translation.↩
  2. United Nations Conference on International Organization, April 25–June 26, 1945; for documentation on the Conference, see Foreign Relations, 1945, vol. i, pp. 1 ff.↩