16 countries were under the chairmanship of their respective ministers of foreign affairs.1 The United States delegation was headed by the Secretary of State, Gen. George C. Marshall, and included the following five delegates: Ambassador William D. Pawley, United States Ambassador to Brazil; Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg, President of the Senate of the United States and chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations; Senator Tom Connally, member of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate of the United States; Representative Sol Bloom, member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives of the United States; and Ambassador Warren R. Austin, United States representative to the United Nations. The delegates were assisted by Mr. Norman Armour, Assistant Secretary of State for Political Affairs, and others. By a resolution of the Governing Board of the Pan American Union of July 28, 1947, a special invitation was extended to the SecretaryGeneral of the United Nations, Mr. Trygve H. Lie, to attend as observer in the name of the United Nations and on behalf of all countries not directly represented. By resolution of the Conference the invitation was subsequently extended to the Assistant Secretary-General, Mr. Benjamin Cohen, in view of the inability of Mr. Lie to remain for the duration of the Conference. In accordance with the regulations, the Director-General of the Pan American Union, Dr. Lleras Camargo, attended as delegate ex officio but without the right to vote. He was assisted by Dr. Manuel Canyes, Chief of the Juridical Division of the Pan American Union. Toward the end of the Conference, the Government of Ecuador was overthrown and replaced by a new government which was not immediately recognized by the other American Republics. Since the credentials of the Ecuadoran delegation had been given by the previous government, the chairman of that delegation formally requested the Conference for a clarification of his status. In response thereto, the heads of the other delegations decided that he was entitled to continue to participate in the deliberations of the Conference, making clear that this decision did not imply recognition of the new government, but that his credentials did not entitle him to sign the Final Act or the treaty. The Ecuadoran delegation thereupon withdrew from the Conference. 1 For list of delegations to the Conference, see appendix three, part 2, p. 163. Organization Pursuant to the regulations, a preparatory session of the chairmen of the delegations was held on Friday, August 15, 1947, at 10:30 a. m., at which problems relating to the organization of the Conference were considered. In view of the limited nature of the agenda, an elaborate organizational structure was not necessary. Brazil, as the host country, prepared and submitted to this preparatory session a plan of organization which followed in part the major subdivisions of the problems relating to the treaty as set forth in the report of the special committee of the Governing Board referred to above. This proposal was slightly modified by a decision of the preparatory session, and the organization of the Conference as finally approved was as follows: Central Committee.-Composed of the chairmen of the delegations and presided over by the president of the Conference. Committee on Credentials.-Composed of delegates from Bolivia, Ecuador, and Venezuela. Coordination and Drafting Committee.-Composed of representatives of Brazil, Colombia, Haiti, and the United States. Working committees.— Committee 1: Preamble, principles, and protocolary articles. Committee 2: Measures to be taken in the case of threats or acts of aggression. Committee 3: Procedures and agencies for the execution of the treaty. The working committees then proceeded to elect their own officers and appoint a number of drafting subcommittees to facilitate their work.1 The secretariat of the Conference was provided by the Government of Brazil and was under the able leadership of Ambassador Luiz Faro, Jr., as secretary general and Minister Fernando Lobo as assistant secretary general, assisted by a large staff. The burden which falls upon the secretariat in the management of such a conference is a heavy one, and the organization, speed, and quiet efficiency of the entire secretariat merits high praise. In no small degree the smooth functioning of the Conference and its ability to accomplish its work in so short a time was due to their efforts. Although the Conference was in some respects novel, tradition 1For reports of the three working committees, see appendix two, part 3. favored it in that by following the customary practice of electing as président the Foreign Minister of the host country, the Conference was able to choose His Excellency, Raul Fernandes, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the United States of Brazil, whose mature statesmanship was a signal contribution to its success. At the preparatory session the following order of precedence was determined by lot: 1. Dominican Republic 2. Guatemala 3. Costa Rica 4. Peru 5. El Salvador 6. Panama 7. Paraguay 8. Venezuela 9. Chile 10. Honduras 11. Cuba 12. Bolivia 13. Colombia 14. Mexico 15. Ecuador 16. Haiti 17. Uruguay 18. United States 19. Argentina 20. Brazil Although the Conference did not formally approve the regulations, since they had been previously approved by the Governing Board of the Pan American Union, the preparatory session and later the Central Committee took action which was interpreted in some quarters as modifying the regulations. The preparatory meeting decided that decisions regarding the election of the president, the designation of committees, and the closing date of the Conference should be taken at a plenary session, whereas article 4 of the regulations provides for their consideration at the preparatory session itself. The Central Committee on August 21 approved an excellent set of rules submitted by the Brazilian delegation for directing and expediting the work of the committees, although article 13 of the regulations gave the working committees freedom to determine their own procedure. Plenary Sessions at The Conference was formally inaugurated on August 15, 1947, 4 p. m., in the plenary session room at the Hotel Quitandinha, near Petropolis, under the chairmanship of the Honorable Dr. Raul Fernandes, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Brazil. General Eurico Gaspar Dutra, President of Brazil, gave the official address of welcome, to which the Honorable Jaime Torres Bodet, Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, responded on behalf of all the delegations. The Honorable Trygve Lie, Secretary General of the United Nations, delivered an address as representative of the United Nations. After referring to the importance of the work of the Conference in concluding the treaty of mutual assistance, President Dutra went on to say in part: "We all know that to end war it is not sufficient to outlaw it; it is also necessary to eliminate it from international habits, to strike at its deep and complex causes. "In this endeavor it is incumbent upon America to fulfill the role which has been assigned to it by geography and history. As members of the United Nations, taking an active part in its . . . agencies, we must each of us contribute our share in the organization of a better world, in which the states, in matters outside their domestic interests, will waive their freedom of action on behalf of the community of which they are a part. It is to be hoped that within that frame there will be no room for ideas of conquest and expansion at the expense of other peoples. "As in the present day the world has not succeeded in achieving moral unity, and consequently juridical rules for international relations are not apt to be strictly obeyed by all the states, it will remain for the American Republics to discourage aggression by their collective solidarity in face of the aggressor. 66 ". . . As in private society the individual partakes of the privileges granted by the state, and of the obligations imposed by it, so in international society each state will have its share of responsibility in the defense and preservation of peace and order which are assets to all." In addition to the formal inaugural session and the formal closing session, seven plenary sessions were held at intervals during the Conference, in the course of which addresses were delivered by the following delegates: The Honorable Juan Atilio Bramuglia, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship of the Argentine Republic. The Honorable Germán Vergara Donoso, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Chile. The Honorable Mateo Marques Castro, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Uruguay. The Honorable Julián R. Cáceres, Ambassador of Honduras to the United States. The Honorable Alberto Lleras Camargo, Director General of the Pan American Union. The Honorable Luis Fernando Guachalla, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship of Bolivia. The Honorable Guillermo Belt, Ambassador of Cuba to the United States. The Honorable Carlos Morales, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Venezuela. The Honorable Ernesto Alfonso Núñez, Under Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Justice of El Salvador. The Honorable George C. Marshall, Secretary of State of the United States of America. The Honorable Carlos Leonidas Acevedo, Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs of Guatemala. The Honorable Arturo Despradel, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of the Dominican Republic. The Honorable Enrique García Sayán, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship of Peru. The Honorable José Vicente Trujillo, Minister of Foreign Affairs of The Honorable Eduardo Zuleta Angel, Ambassador of Colombia. At the third plenary session on August 20, 1947, the Secretary of State of the United States, Mr. George C. Marshall, gave an address. In referring to the basic principle of the Act of Chapultepec Secretary Marshall said: "This principle of collective responsibility for our common defense is a natural development of Inter-American collaboration. We have been for years a community of nations, with deep traditions of cooperation and mutual respect. We turn now to the drafting of a treaty to establish a community responsibility, to defend by collective action any member of our regional group that may be the victim of aggression. "This is but one step. Our broad objectives require that we simplify and make clear the exact procedures of pacific settlement whereby such inter-American disputes as may arise can be effectively settled through peaceful means. At Bogotá in January we shall formulate the treaty designed to give effect to that purpose. This treaty, together with the comprehensive organic pact on the inter-American system and the treaty we conclude at this Conference, will strengthen the principle of collective responsibility and the rule of law in our international affairs. The results of our labors will demonstrate to all the world that peoples, and nations, who really want peace can have peace by living in an atmosphere of increasing cooperative action and good will." |