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Department of State Bulletin, vol. I, p. 299
Address Delivered
by the Under Secretary of State (Welles) at Panama, September 25, 1939
In accordance with the principles of the
Convention for the Maintenance, Preservation, and Reestablishment of Peace, the
Declaration of Inter-American Solidarity of Buenos Aires, and the Declaration
of Lima, the Ministers of Foreign Relations of the American republics or their
representatives are meeting here in Panama for the purpose of consultation.
Under the terms of the agreements I have cited, this coming together to consult
is not an undertaking into which we have entered lightly. We have, on the
contrary, agreed and clearly stipulated that the consultation provided for in
these
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agreements shall be undertaken when there exists in the belief of our
respective governments a menace to the peace of the continent.
I speak, of course, solely in the name of my
own Government, but I venture to assert that the government of every American
republic coincides in the opinion that the outbreak of the general war with
which the world today is confronted constitutes in very truth a potential
menace to the well-being, to the security, and to the peace of the New World.
And it is for that reason that we are meeting here in this historic city of
Panama. We are today creating a precedent. The Conference for the Maintenance
of Peace of Buenos Aires was called, as we all recognize, for the specific
purpose of reaching a common understanding while world peace existed as to how
the nations of the New World might best safeguard their legitimate interests,
and most readily preserve the peace of their own peoples, in the event that war
broke out in other parts of the world.
The meeting here assembled is the first and
the direct result of the engagements undertaken at the Conference of Buenos
Aires.
It is a meeting of the American neighbors to
consider, in a moment of grave emergency, the peaceful measures which they may
feel it wise to adopt either individually or jointly, so as best to insure
their national interests and the collective interests of the nations of the New
World.
And it is singularly fitting that this great
practical demonstration of inter-American solidarity should be realized in
Panama. Every one of us who meets here today will recognize that this assembly
constitutes the realization of an ideal—the realization of the vision that
Bolivar possessed more than a century ago—an ideal which time and again it had
seemed could never be attained. It lies within the power of those of us who
have the privilege of representing our governments upon this occasion to insure
not only the attainment of that ideal, but also by so doing, to insure the
lasting establishment of a peaceful form of practical cooperation and
interdependence between equal and sovereign states on a scale which the world
has rarely witnessed and which, at this moment, is more than ever imperative.
The purpose for which we meet and the topics
which will come up for consideration are clearly set forth in the agenda upon
which we have agreed. As my Government envisages it, it is our common desire to
take under consideration the complicated question of our rights and duties as
neutrals, in view of the outbreak of general war in Europe, with a view to the
preservation of the peace of our respective nations and with a view towards
obtaining complete respect on the part of all belligerents for our respective
sovereignties. It would
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seem to me desirable, so far as conditions and our untrammeled rights of
individual action make it possible, for us in this connection to give some
thought to the desirability of our reaching some uniform standards of approach
with regard to the steps which we may individually take in determining and in
asserting our rights and obligations as neutrals. It would seem to me to be
self-evident that should it be possible to attain such an objective, our individual
capacity to maintain our sovereign rights unimpaired, as well as our ability to
preserve the peace of our continent, would be correspondingly enhanced.
We are further agreed that we will give the
fullest consideration to all measures which we may individually or collectively
undertake to preserve the American Continent free from conflict and to keep war
away from our New World.
Finally, we are agreed that we will undertake
to discuss and to consider those practical steps which can most advantageously
be undertaken to cushion our national economies from the shock of the war which
has broken out and to prevent so far as may be possible that disruption and
dislocation of inter-American economic, financial, and commercial intercourse
which wrought such havoc during the years of the Great War of 1914-18. We are
also in accord that we will give thought to the continuation and expansion of
long-range programs for commercial and economic cooperation among our several
republics.
In the economic sphere the struggle that is
going on confronts us with difficulties of both an immediate and an ultimate
character. We are already experiencing dislocations in our usual commerce. Some
of the markets for our products will be closed or diminished; others will be
greatly changed. We must anticipate difficulties disposing of war-created
surpluses in some directions, which will result in lowering prices or in
bringing new burdens to our public finances. In other directions we must
anticipate an abnormally increased demand which will result in price increases,
unexpected gains, and the dangers of expansion on temporary and unstable
foundations.
Each of our nations will no doubt determine
upon a program aimed to lessen the effects upon its own welfare of these
dislocations. But there are many ways in which the American republics can
assist each other in the task. We may be able, without undertaking
discriminations against the rest of the world, substantially to increase our
commerce with one another. Countries which have similar surplus problems may be
able to devise temporary arrangements with each other that will ameliorate
their situation.
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By our concerted effort we may be able to
achieve something in the maintenance of our usual trade in staple peace-time
commodities with other neutral countries.
We all of us remember only too well the havoc
which was occasioned our inter-American economic system after the war broke out
in 1914. Inter-American shipping communications were either abandoned or were
seriously crippled; the legitimate export trade of many republics—even that to
their American neighbors—upon which in great part their national economy
depended, was disrupted or destroyed with resultant misery and distress to
their respective peoples. It appears to my Government that the opportunity is
now afforded for us severally to assure ourselves and each other that this will
not occur again.
So far as my own Government is concerned I am
authorized to state that so long as the present situation continues, the regular
transportation facilities of the shipping lines between the United States and
its American neighbors now in operation will not only not be curtailed but will
be strengthened and increased whenever such increase may be found to be
desirable and feasible.
Financial assistance and cooperation may be
developed to tide over short emergency periods and to develop in individual
countries new fields of production to replace those temporarily depressed.
I am authorized to state that the United
States Government wishes to cooperate with all other American republics in such
efforts of each to develop the resources of its country along sound economic
and noncompetitive lines. When desired it will assist in making credit
available to them through the services and facilities of its privately owned
banking system as well as its Government-owned agencies when the latter have
funds available for such purposes.
In financing current matters, it is expected
that only short-term credits will be requested, but in the purchase of rail and
mill equipment, heavy goods, et cetera, longer term credits appropriate to the
circumstances will be required. Also, it is of course recognized that war
conditions may shift certain international trade markets, and this will need to
be taken into account.
My Government likewise recognizes that
excessive or unwarranted fluctuations in inter-American exchanges brought about
by conditions resulting from the war situation would seriously prejudice
beneficial trade between the American republics. It is my hope that our
deliberations may result in agreement. To the extent that we sustain bases of
commercial policy that are universal in character and leave trade open to all
countries on substantially the same terms, and to
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the extent that our commerce is not dictated by special agreements of an
exclusive character, to that extent can we insure that our political
independence cannot be subjugated to alien political systems operating through
commercial channels.
There is also incumbent upon us the task of
keeping vigorous our belief that work and production should be primarily for
peaceful welfare. If by our joint effort and strength we keep this continent
free from the threat of aggression, we will greatly lessen the need of subordinating
our individual productive energies by making preparatory arrangements which may
assist in safeguarding against this danger.
These, as I understand them, are the specific
and practical measures which we are called upon to consider. They are all of them
problems of vital importance to the American republics—problems of the highest
and most legitimate self-interest; but we all of us recognize I am sure that
however much we may desire to insulate ourselves from the effects of this
present conflict, such insulation can be only relative. It cannot in any event
do more than mitigate insofar as we are able the disasters which will affect
all peoples, belligerent or neutral, as a result of this world calamity.
Beyond these immediate problems produced by
the war crisis there are problems which are deeper and more fundamental. We
have prospered by regarding our commerce and production as designed to-serve,
through the exercise of individual initiative, the ends of . public welfare and
not the ends of political strategy. We shall be faced by the fact that various
powerful countries in other parts of the world have now completely converted
their own system of trade and production to another basis—making it an
instrument of political or ideological ambition. By common determination and
cooperation we can do much to avoid having our own purposes dominated by those
of others or subordinated to military demands. But, since in these days it is
essential to be strong (for we have seen all too often the fate of the weak),
we can make every effort to see that our program of defense is of a character
that reaffirms our faith in the powers of individual initiative and of free
men. We can draw our strength from our liberties and from the contribution of
men and women become strong and disciplined under conditions of freedom.
I believe that the time has come when the 21
American republics must state, and state clearly and in no uncertain terms, to
all of the belligerents, both as a right of self-protection and as a right
inherent in their position as peaceful and independent powers, constituting an
entire continent remote from the causes of the hostilities which
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have broken out, that they cannot agree that their security, nationals,
or their legitimate commercial rights be jeopardized by belligerent activities
in close proximity to the shores of the New World. This assertion of principle,
I believe, must be regarded as constituting a declaration of the inalienable
right of the American republics to protect themselves, so far as conditions in
this modern world make it possible, from the dangers and the repercussions of a
war which has broken out thousands of miles from their shores and in which they
are not involved.
But in the larger sense, every one of our nations,
every one of our fellow citizens, is affected or will be affected by the
growing tragedy of this new war.
War spells ruin, waste, torture, and
death—not perhaps to the leaders who have wrought it, but to the countless
numbers of humble men and women throughout the world who would have none of it.
For there is nothing surer in the world today than that the vast mass of the
common people everywhere have wanted above all else to prevent the war which
has now broken out.
Far removed from the initial scene of
hostilities as the Americas are, their interests have been jeopardized by the
commencement of war. In modern civilization, every country has a natural right
that war shall not be loosed upon humanity. This right was subscribed to by
every nation of the civilized world in the so-called Pact of Paris, and it is
this right, so solemnly subscribed to, that is today being flagrantly violated.
There is no moral justification for any
nation to loose humanity when the resort to peaceful procedure controversies or
of inequities is available.
The
only possible road for achieving peace is through cooperation; this implies the
juridic equality of every nation and the acceptance of a moral order and of
effective international law. It assumes that controversies will be settled by
peaceful processes and that all peoples will under these pacific processes
cooperate on equal terms with generosity and with justice. It assumes that
economic arrangements can be made which are entirely susceptible of satisfying
the reasonable needs of any nation for beneficial trade, which will provide
access on equal terms to world markets, access on equal terms to raw materials
and which will satisfy the legitimate demand of all component factors which
make for a peaceful life.
There is existing now and at this moment an
overwhelming will the part of the peoples everywhere for peace based on
renunciation force, on justice, and on equality, could it find expression.
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It may well be that the facilitation of that
means of expression will be determined by the part we play in this Western
Hemisphere. We, the American republics, share in common a great heritage—the
principles of democratic constitutional government, devotion to justice,
respect for the pledged word, love of peace. We have created an American
system, an American way of life, which is our chief contribution to world
civilization. This way of life we must make every effort to protect, to
safeguard, to pass on intact to future generations of our own peoples, and to
maintain as an unflinching standard in a world in which each day that passes
sees more standards, once believed inviolate, shattered and destroyed.
As the shadows created by the outbreak of
this monstrous war darken and spread rapidly across the length and breadth of
the world in which we live, the 21 free nations of the New World can still
preserve for posterity those ideals and those beliefs which may well constitute
the last great hope of the civilization which we have inherited.
Our influence for peace and for the
reestablishment of a world order based on morality and on law must be unshaken
and secure. To accomplish this we must, and we can, resolutely defend our
continent from all menace of aggression, direct or indirect. To do so, we must
make every effort to keep alive our liberal commercial policy in our relations
with those other nations of the world who are willing to join with us. To do
so, we must strengthen and fortify the solidarity of understanding and the
identity of individual purpose which bind us closely together. To do so we must
rely ever more resolutely upon the principles of freedom and of democracy and
upon the ideals of our Christian faith, through which our nations have had
their being and only through which can their future rest secure.