767.68119T&M/16: Telegram
The Special Mission at Lausanne to the Secretary of State
[Received 4:35 p.m.]
96. Our 95, December 12, 11 p.m.33 Child’s statement34 follows:
“The American representatives intend to hold aloof from affairs not our own, but humanitarian interest is as much our right and our duty as it is the right and duty of every nation.
[Page 921]We claim no particular right to be heard upon the subjects of refugees, the protection of populations, and the finding of homes for those who are dislodged; instead of doing so we assert that other nations and particularly those represented at this table have an equal interest and an equal duty. Because it was upon her territory that the misfortune of war fell and from her territory that the great number of refugees come, Turkey may have an interest in these humanitarian questions greater than that of any of us.
It is unthinkable that the aspirations of Turkey for independence, for progress should not rely in part upon a generous policy of contribution to the safety and relief from suffering of mankind. The safety and relief from suffering of mankind is one of the principal concerns of governments.
The comfort and safety and settling of hundreds of thousands of human beings, most of them nonbelligerents, many of them women and children, many dislodged forever from their homes by the disturbances in the Near East, is a matter which has for the people of the United States a vital interest.
As an earnest of that interest, our nationals have spent freely in the quarter of the world with which this conference is dealing, in medical attention, in the service of our naval forces, in feeding starving people and in other forms of relief, large sums of money. We have put nearly $75,000,000 into this work through one committee alone. The people of my country ask no return for this expenditure unless it be assurance that this conference to the full extent of its power will find means to wipe away at once the causes for this waste of human life and human suffering.
It is useless for me to restate the problem. It is useless to give more statistics. The facts are recognized by everyone. They rebuke the world. They challenge the self-respect of civilization. They are so stupendous that pity for individuals is lost in pity for masses. The work to be done may include any wise exchange of nationals, so that as one of the results males may go back to their families and support them on their native soils. It includes the safety of other racial elements fleeing under the stress of fear and the finding of refuge for them as the wisdom and the conscience of the nations represented here may direct. It includes the finding of homes for homeless and an international generosity in furnishing temporary feeding and transportation and prevention of the sweeping fires of pestilence which might menace the world. It includes the requirement of guarantees of these nations which now find those homeless hordes upon their soils that they shall have protection. It includes the attempt to prevent further migrations and it is not of vast consequence to my mind whether migrations are started by order issued by authorities or by fear of violence.
I do not say that the Allied Powers have avoided responsibility for the fulfillment of these ends. On the contrary I point out the following few instances of such assurances which have been cited by those who seek the establishment of a refuge for Armenians: The text of the Treaty of Sevres; the statement of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of Great Britain made in the House of Commons on March 11th, 1920; the statement of the Prime Minister in the House of Commons on the 29th of April 1920; the letter of M. [Page 922] Poincaré, President of the French Republic, to the Armenian Archbishop of Cilicia February 16th, 1919; the resolutions of the Supreme Allied Council March 8th, 1921; the resolutions of the Allied Ministers of Foreign Affairs March 26th, 1922; the resolutions of the League of Nations on September 22nd, 1922. I do not say that the Turkish delegation and the nationals will fail to act in accordance with that tolerance and justice and concession which the United States and the whole world expects and may righteously require.
But I urge on behalf of the people of the United States that this conference will never leave Lausanne without providing some means for permanent joint labors to find refuge for unprotected hordes and to create if possible safe territorial refuges for special populations if it be determined that they require resources of other nationalities, religions or races. Above all this conference should secure by agreement and by measures of humanitarian administration strong guarantees that safety shall attend the continuance in their present situation of populations which now are vexed by fears. We believe that new precedents which tend to establish the right of nations to expel large bodies of their citizens to become burdens upon other nations must be carefully considered before countenance is given them lest a new and unwholesome principle find foothold to vex international law and justice.
The representatives of the United States believe that the ends to be sought are prevention rather than mere relief and guarantees of safety of minorities rather than mere succor to their misery, and permanence of joint action rather than mere spasmodic separate activity. In this purpose the people of my country, though far removed by distance, have a profound interest, and will continue to stand ready with their contributions”.