Department of State,
Washington, February 17,
1903.
[Inclosure.]
memorandum.
Without expressing assent to or dissent from the propositions ably
set forth in the note of the Argentine minister of foreign relations
dated December 29, 1902, the general position of the Government of
the United States in the matter is indicated in recent messages of
the President.
The President declared in his message to Congress, December 3, 1901,
that by the Monroe doctrine “we do not guarantee any State against
punishment if it misconducts itself, provided that punishment does
not take the form of the acquisition of territory by any
non-American power.”
In harmony with the foregoing language, the President announced in
his message of December 2, 1902:
No independent nation in America need have the slightest fear
of aggression from the United States. It behooves each one
to maintain order within its own borders and to discharge
its just obligations to foreigners. When this is done they
can rest assured that, be they strong or weak, they have
nothing to dread from outside interference.
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Advocating and adhering in practice in questions concerning itself to
the resort of international arbitration in settlement of
controversies not adjustable by the orderly treatment of diplomatic
negotiation, the Government of the United States would always be
glad to see the questions of the justice of claims by one State
against another growing out of individual wrongs or national
obligations, as well as the guarantees for the execution of whatever
award may be made, left to the decision of an impartial arbitral
tribunal before which the litigant nations, weak and strong alike,
may stand as equals in the eye of international law and mutual
duty.
