TOPICAL GUIDE TO STATEMENTS (See also the Table of Contents) GENERAL TOPIC STATEMENT NUMBER General Principles and Purpose of For- 10, 11, 20, 24, 26, 28, 35, eign Policy 37, 42, 47, 52, 55, 59, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 83 4, 13, 17 I, 12, 48 8, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 38, 41, 53 2, 9, 13 3, 5, 6, 7 21, 22, 31, 32, 33 15, 25, 30, 45, 49, 51, 54 27, 29, 30, 34, 36, 39, 40, 49, 51, 54, 56, 57, 58, 81, 82, 84, 85, 89 43, 44, 46, 50 23, 33, 60, 79, 80, 90 86, 87, 88, 90 207 287 213 PART III RELATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES WITH LATIN AMERICA 1. Statement of President ilson. March 11, 1913 (American Journal of International Law, VII, 331) In view of questions which are naturally uppermost in the public mind just now, the President issues the following statement: One of the chief objects of my administration will be to cultivate the friendship and deserve the confidence of our sister republics of Central and South America, and to promote in every proper and honorable way the interests which are common to the peoples of the two continents. I earnestly desire the most cordial understanding and co-operation between the peoples and leaders of America and, therefore, deem it my duty to make this brief statement. Co-operation is possible only when supported at every turn by the orderly processes of just government based upon law, not upon arbitrary or irregular force. We hold, as I am sure all thoughtful leaders of republican government everywhere hold, that just government rests always upon the consent of the governed, and that there can be no freedom without order based upon law and upon the public conscience and approval. We shall look to make these principles the basis of mutual intercourse, respect, and helpfulness between our sister republics and ourselves. We shall lend our influence of every kind to the realization of these principles in fact and practice, knowing that disorder, personal intrigue and defiance of constitutional rights weaken and discredit government and injure none so much as the people who are unfortunate enough to have their common life and their common affairs so tainted and disturbed. We can have no sympathy with those who seek to seize the power of government to advance their own personal interests or ambition. We are the friends of peace, but we know that there can be no lasting or stable peace in such circumstances. As friends, therefore, we shall prefer those who act in the interests of peace and honor, who protect private rights and respect the restraints of constitutional provision. Mutual respect seems to us the indispensable foundation of friendship between states, as between individuals. The United States has nothing to seek in Central and South America except the lasting interests of the peoples of the two continents, the security of governments intended for the people and for no special group or interest, and the development of personal and trade relationships between the two continents which shall redound to the profit and advantage of both and interfere with the rights and liberties of neither. From these principles may be read so much of the future policy of this government as it is necessary now to forecast; and in the spirit of these principles I may, I hope, be permitted with as much confidence as earnestness to extend to the governments of all the republics of America the hand of genuine disinterested friendship and to pledge my own honor and the honor of my colleagues to every enterprise of peace and amity that a fortunate future may disclose. AMERICAN BANKERS AND LOANS TO CHINA 2. Statement of President Wilson. March 18, 1913 (American Journal of International Law, VII, 338.) We are informed that at the request of the last administration a certain group of American bankers undertook to participate in the loan now desired by the Government of China (approximately $125,000,000). . . . The present administration has been asked by this group of bankers whether it would also request them to participate in the loan. The representatives of the bankers through whom the administration was approached declared that they would continue to seek their share of the loan under the proposed agreements only if expressly requested to do so by the government. The administration has declined to make such request because it did not approve the conditions of the loan or the implications of responsibility on its own part which it was plainly told would be involved in the request.1 The conditions of the loan seem to us to touch very nearly the administrative independence of China itself; and this administration does not feel that it ought, even by implication, to be a party to those conditions. The responsibility on its part which would be implied in requesting the bankers to undertake the loan might conceivably go to the length in some unhappy contingency of forcible interference in the financial, and even the political, affairs of that great oriental state, just now awakening to a consciousness of its power and of its obligations to its people. The conditions include not only the pledging of particular taxes, some of them antiquated and burdensome, to secure the loan, but also the administration of those taxes by foreign agents. 1 The official announcement of the withdrawal of the American group of bankers, issued March 19, 1913, may be found in Commercial and Financial Chronicle, XCVI, 825. which |