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Press Releases, vol. IX, p. 343
Statement [15] by
the Secretary of State at the Seventh International Conference of American
States, Montevideo, December 15, 1933
MR. CHAIRMAN AND MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE: I arise to say hat the
Delegation of the United States of America is in the heartiest accord with the
very timely and vitally important resolution offered by the able Minister of
Foreign Affairs of Argentina, Dr. Saavedra Lamas. The beneficial benefits of
this proposal on peace will be far-reaching. Their stimulating influence will
extend beyond this hemisphere and to the uttermost parts of the earth. They
will bring cheer and hope to the struggling and discouraged forces of peace
everywhere.
May I express what is in the mind of every
delegate, that our grateful appreciation of this outstanding service of Dr.
Saavedra Lamas will most appropriately climax a series of splendid services to
he cause of peace which he has rendered. Let me also thank the heads of each
delegation with whom I have conferred during past
[15] In seconding Dr. Saavedra Lamas' proposal that all nations represented at he Conference give their adherence to the existing peace conventions since the Gondra treaty, signed in 1923.
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days for their prompt and most valuable cooperation in support of this
proposal.
The passage of this resolution and the
agreement to attach from 12 to 20 signatures of governments to the five peace
pacts or agencies thus far unsigned by them is not a mere mechanical operation.
The real significance is the deep and solemn spirit of peace which pervades the
minds and hearts of every delegate here and moves each to undertake a wise and
effective step to promote conditions of peace at this critical stage. The
adoption of this resolution and the agreement to sign these five splendid peace
instruments will thoroughly strengthen the peace agencies of the 21 American
states and make peace permanently secure in this hemisphere. This wholesale
affixing of signatures to five treaties through conference action within itself
thoroughly vindicates the policy of international conference. [16]
I desire most heartily to second the motion
to report this resolution favorably. I desire also to say that the United
States is ready to affix its signature to the Argentine anti-war pact, and I
venture at the same time to express the earnest hope that representatives of
all other governments present will aid in a great service to peace by
signifying at this time their willingness to affix on behalf of their
governments their signatures on any of these five treaties which they have not
yet signed.
Universal peace has been the chief aim of
civilization. Nations fail or succeed according to their failure or success in
this supreme undertaking. I profoundly believe that the American nations during
the coming years will write a chapter of achievement in the advancement of
peace that will stand out in world history.
It is in these inspiring circumstances that I
and my associates have come to the Conference here in Montevideo. We come too
for the reason that the people and the Government of the United States feel the
keenest interest in this Conference and have the strongest
[16] The five treaties and
conventions referred to by Mr. Hull in the above statement are the following:
Kellogg-Briand
Peace Pact (Pact of Paris), signed in Paris in 1928.
Argentine
Anti-War Pact, signed at Rio de Janeiro, October 10, 1933.
Treaty
To Avoid or Prevent Conflicts Between American States (Gondra treaty), signed
at the Fifth Pan American Conference, Santiago, Chile, in 1923.
General
Treaty of Inter-American Conciliation, signed at Washington, January 5, 1929.
General
Treaty of Inter-American Arbitration, signed at Washington, January 5, 1929.
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desire to contribute to its success. We come because we share in common
the things that are vital to the entire material, moral, and spiritual welfare
of the people of this hemisphere and because the satisfactory development of
civilization itself in this Western World depends on cooperative efforts by all
the Americas. No other common aspiration could so closely draw peoples
together. We can have no other objective than these. Our common hopes and
responsibilities, chaperoned by common sense and initiative, beckon to all of us.
We sense a yearning here for a spirit of fine cooperative endeavor. We know too
that in this great region the future possibilities of which no man dare
calculate the world is being given another chance to right itself. By pooling
all our resources in an unselfish spirit we shall undertake to meet the test of
service to ourselves and to humanity and make the most of the spacious
opportunities that lie ahead. We know when we survey our assets that we have
the foundations in this part of the world laid for the greatest civilization of
all the past—a civilization built upon the highest moral, intellectual, and
spiritual ideals.
Indeed, while older nations totter under the
burden of outworn ideas, cling to the decayed and cruel institution of war, and
use precious resources to feed cannon rather than hungry mouths, we stand ready
to carry on in the spirit of that application of the Golden Rule by which we
mean the true good will of the true good neighbor.
It is really a very old and universal though
sometimes neglected rule of conduct, this revitalized policy. It is, however,
the real basis of that political liberty for which your own great heroes fought
and which is our greatest common heritage. It is high time for the world to
take new heed of it and to restore its ancient and potent meaning.
I am gratified to say that I have already
found much of this spirit among the distinguished leaders with whom I have
talked here in Montevideo. They all keenly realize the crisis that has been
thrust upon the New World. The Old World looks hopefully in this direction, and
we must not disappoint that hope. Today Europe staggers under the load of
bristling armaments paid for out of treasuries depleted by the clogging of
trade channels. Our common ties with them redouble our desire to offer our best
in the molding of a new world order. We have the opportunity and the duty to
carry on. We have a belt of sanity on this part of the globe. We are as one as
to the objective we seek. We agree that it is a forward-looking enterprise
which brings us here, and we must make it a forward-moving enterprise.
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Peace and economic rehabilitation must be our
objective. The avoidance of war must be our supreme purpose. Most gratifying is
the practical appeal which your leaders are making to bring about an end to the
bloody conflict between two of our sister republics, the one small and
remaining exception to our hopes and ideals for enduring peace in this
hemisphere. This is a blot on our civilization which we must erase. I grant
with all my heart that with the end of that conflict war as an instrument for
settling international disputes will have lost its last foothold in this
hemisphere.
In its own forward-looking policy the
administration at Washington has pledged itself, as I have said, to the policy
of the good neighbor. As President Roosevelt has defined the good neighbor, he
"resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights
of others". We must think, we must speak, we must act this part.
I am safe in the statement that each of the
American nations whole-heartedly supports this doctrine—that every nation alike
earnestly favors the absolute independence, the unimpaired sovereignty, the
perfect equality, and the political integrity of each nation, large or small,
as they similarly oppose aggression in every sense of the word.
May I for a moment direct attention to the
significance of this broad policy as my country is steadily carrying it into
effect under the Roosevelt administration, the extent and nature of which
should be familiar to each of the nations here represented. My Government is
doing its utmost, with due regard to commitments made in the past, to end with
all possible speed engagements which have been set up by previous circumstances.
There are some engagements which can be removed more speedily than others. In
some instances disentanglement from obligations of another era can only be
brought about through the exercise of some patience. The United States is
determined that its new policy of the New Deal—of enlightened liberalism—shall
have full effect and shall be recognized in its fullest import by its
neighbors. The people of my country strongly feel that the so-called right of
conquest must forever be banished from this hemisphere, and most of all they
shun and reject that so-called right for themselves. The New Deal indeed would
be an empty boast if it did not mean that.
Let us in the broad spirit of this
revitalized policy make this the beginning of a great new era, of a great
renaissance in American cooperative effort to promote our entire material,
moral, and spiritual affairs and to erect an edifice of peace that will forever
endure. Let
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each American nation vie with the other in the practice of the policy of
the good neighbor. Let suspicion, misunderstanding, and prejudice be banished
from every mind and genuine friendship for and trust in each other and a
singleness of purpose to promote the welfare of all be substituted. Let each
nation welcome the closest scrutiny by the others of the spirit and manner in
which it carries out the policy of the good neighbor. Let actions rather than
mere words be the acid test of the conduct and motives of each nation. Let each
country demonstrate by its every act and practice the sincerity of its purposes
and the unselfishness of its relationships as a neighbor.
It is in this spirit that the Government and
the people of the; United States express their recognition of the common
interests and common aspirations of the American nations and join with them in
a renewed spirit of broad cooperation for the promotion of liberty under law of
peace, of justice, and of righteousness.