710 Consultation (4)/11–1444: Telegram
The Ambassador in Mexico (Messersmith) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 15—1:28 a.m.]
1423. Immediately after the conversation with Armour and Spaeth this morning commenting on my telegram No. 1417 of November 13, 6 p.m., I telephoned Padilla and found that he had with him the Chiefs of Mission of the other American Republics to whom he had already delivered the memorandum to which he had made reference yesterday. He said that he had sent me a copy of his new memorandum early this morning, which I told him I had not yet received, and I did not in fact receive it until 1 o’clock through lack of diligence of Foreign Office messengers.
I called on Padilla early this afternoon and conveyed to him the observations which Armour and Spaeth had made to me on the telephone this morning. He expressed regret that he had already delivered this memorandum to the other Chiefs of Mission when I telephoned him as he would have been very glad to withhold it, but he thought that the Department would find the memorandum entirely satisfactory.
[Page 51]Transmitted by separate cable No. 1424 dated November 14, 6 p.m.,39 is a translation of the memorandum which he delivered to me and to the other Chiefs of Mission of the American Republics here today, and which the Ministry is also forwarding by cable to the Mexican Chiefs of Mission in the American Republics, with the exception of the Argentine, for presentation to the respective Foreign Offices.
More full report supplementing my telegram No. 1417 of November 13, 6 p.m., has been transmitted by air mail in my despatch No. 21401 of that date.40 In order to make sure that I expressed accurately the thought of the Minister, I read to him today beginning with the third paragraph on page 5 and ending with the first paragraph at the top of page 7.
With reference to the conversation with Armour and Spaeth this morning I wish to repeat that I do not see clearly just what procedure and objectives we are driving at, and I think the same confusion of thought exists in the mind of the Minister here and may exist in those of my colleagues and some of the Foreign Ministers of the American Republics. The Minister is presenting a definite program of procedure which he believes is constructive and which has the definite object of reestablishing real continental unity, but he, as little as we, is disposed to do it with any sacrifice of principle, security, or dignity. If we are not in accord with the procedures which the Minister is suggesting it will be necessary for us to more clearly define the procedures and objectives we have in mind, for the feeling which already exists that we have no real program will become strengthened, and there will be increased confusion rather than progress toward a satisfactory and adequate settlement of this dangerous and import[ant] question. I should be glad to have by telegram as precise as possible a statement of the constructive procedures we have in mind for my guidance and that of the Minister here, whose one desire is to be helpful and to collaborate with us if he can do so. Spanish text of the Minister’s last memorandum follows by air mail.