710. Consultation (2)/632
The Secretary of State to the French Ambassador (De Saint-Quentin)
The Secretary of State has the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the communication which His Excellency the Ambassador of France, pursuant to instructions from his Government, delivered on August 14, 1940 with reference to the Convention signed on July 30th last by the Meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the American republics at Habana and in accordance with which the American republics reserve to themselves the right to judge in certain eventualities whether the American possessions of European States shall be subjected to a system of provisional administration in the name of those republics.
The Secretary of State has read with interest and is in full agreement with the statement of the Ambassador of France with regard to the relationship which has prevailed for several centuries between France and certain of the French possessions in the Western Hemisphere. The Ambassador of France will recall that this relationship has consistently enjoyed the cordial acquiescence of the United States and of the other American republics.
The Secretary of State desires to assure the Ambassador of France that basic among the tenets of the foreign policy of the United States and of the other American republics are respect for the established order and determination that its change should be sought only by peaceful means in accordance with international law. These principles have not only been stressed, but have repeatedly been given practical [Page 501] application by the American republics, especially during the past few years. Yet, in the state of instability in which, as the Ambassador of France justly observes, the whole world finds itself, account must unhappily be taken of attempts to vary the established order by means other than those recognized by the American republics. These attempts have been too frequent to justify the American republics in failing to take precautionary measures and to announce their position to the world. The Act and Convention of Habana are precautionary measures of this nature.
The measures adopted by the Meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the American republics held at Habana last month were designed to protect the peace and insure the security of the American republics and, in the case of the Act of Habana and the Convention related thereto, of the American possessions of European States in this Hemisphere. The Act of Habana recognizes that the course of military events in Europe and the changes resulting therefrom may create grave danger that European territorial possessions in America may be converted into strategic centers of aggression against nations of this continent. It further declares that when such possessions are in danger of becoming “the subject of barter of territory or change of sovereignty, the American nations, taking into account the imperative need of continental security and the desires of the inhabitants of the said islands or regions, may set up a regime of provisional administration” under certain stated conditions. It also declares that as soon as the reasons requiring the taking of such a measure shall cease to exist, and in the event that it would not be prejudicial to the safety of the American republics, such territories shall be organized as autonomous states or be restored to their previous status, “whichever of these alternatives shall appear the more practicable and just.” The Convention contains similar provisions.
The Secretary of State wishes to assure the Ambassador of France and requests him to inform the French Government that the Government of the United States will not take the initiative in the adoption of measures designed to alter the established order in the Western Hemisphere particularly as that order affects the European colonies and possessions in the Americas but that, in common with the other American republics, the Government of the United States reserves the right to judge when the acts or the consequences of the acts of others are such as to endanger that established order and to justify the adoption, on behalf of the peace and security of the sovereign republics of the Western Hemisphere, of those measures which the American republics believe to be applicable in that event.