500.A15 a 1/45: Telegram
The Chargé in Argentina (Cable) to the Secretary of State
[Received 7 p.m.]
20. Your telegram number 6, February 7, 1 p.m.15 Note from Argentine Government received this morning reads as follows:
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has considered with the greatest interest the memorandum transmitted on the 9th instant by the Embassy of the United States and in reply it begs to state that the Argentine Government considers it preferable to await the resolution of the Commission that is studying the disarmament question in the League of Nations in whose preparatory deliberations it has collaborated and continues to collaborate by means of diplomatic delegates and of experts.
In case the said initiative should fail, the moment will then have arrived to consider whether it be convenient to study a solution of a less general character which might perhaps prove of easier realization.
On the other hand the present armaments of the Argentine Republic are of small importance and the renovations being made will not notably augment its military and naval power since it is only a matter of modernization destined [to] replace the antiquated material that has become obsolete. The expenditure needed for this modernization is moderate in comparison with the general resources of the country and the necessary funds have already been set apart for the purpose so that it does not constitute an excessive outlay or a preparation for the Argentine Government.
At the Fifth Pan American Conference at Santiago, Argentina insistently expressed her desire to celebrate agreements which would limit bellicose acquisitions in order to avert the danger of an armament contest in South America in a manner such as was achieved by the pacts of May of the year 1902 celebrated between the Argentine Republic and Chile.16
Although no favorable results were attained in practice either at the Conference of Santiago or by steps taken subsequently by the Argentine Government, the latter maintain the same favorable disposition to consider any reasonable limitation in military expenditure provided that it be compatible with the requirements of its internal and external security as by this means it will be able to dedicate a larger part of its resources to the development of the country without [Page 20] forgetting at the same time that the development of these resources and the great interests which they even now signify demand in their turn adequate protection.”
- See footnote 9, p. 9.↩
- See Foreign Relations, 1902, pp. 18 ff.↩