Mr. CRAWFORD. Do you know whether or not in these papers which you intend to incorporate in the hearings, there will be a copy of Mr. Hull's address at Habana?

The CHAIRMAN. I have not thought about incorporating it. I have read Mr. Hull's telegram.

Mr. CRAWFORD. Personally I feel it touches on the subject matter of the bill very materially, and if there is no objection I would like to have that incorporated in the hearings also.

The CHAIRMAN. Without objection it will be incorporated in this hearing.

ADDRESS OF THE HONORABLE CORDELL HULL, SECRETARY OF STATE AND DELEGATE OF THE UNITED STATES TO THE SECOND MEETING OF THE FOREIGN MINISTERS OR THEIR REPRESENTATIVES OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLICS AT HABANA, CUBA, MONDAY, JULY 22, 1940

Mr. Chairman, Fellow Representatives of the American Republics:

Permit me, first of all, to express my deep personal pleasure in setting foot once more on the soil of the great nation whose guests we are at this time. Forty years have passed since my first visit to these shores, when I had the honor to serve with my regiment in the cause of Cuba's liberation. I doubly welcome the present opportunity to revisit this country-both because of the personal gratification which it affords me and because of the vital importance of the purpose which has brought us together in this beautiful city of Habana.

We are here as representatives of the 21 free and independent American republics. We meet when world conditions are perhaps graver than they have ever been before. Our purpose is to devise concrete measures by which a number of pressing problems may be met. Our objective is to safeguard the independence, the peace and the well-being of the American republics.

For nearly a year now, a new major war has raged, with increasing fury, over important areas of the earth. It came as a culmination of a process of deterioration of international conduct and international morality, extending over a period of years, during which forces of ruthless conquest were gathering strength in several parts of the world.

These forces, now at work in the world, shrink from no means of attaining their ends. In their contempt for all moral and ethical values, they are bent on uprooting the very foundation of orderly relations among nations and on subverting, undermining and destroying existing social and political institutions within nations. They have already left in their wake formerly sovereign nations with their independence trampled into dust and millions of proud men and women with their liberties destroyed.

Our American republics had no part in kindling the tragic conflagration which has thus been sweeping across the world. On the contrary, severally and jointly, we did everything in our power to stay its outburst. Once the conflict had begun, we did everything we could to limit its spreading. But it has been increasingly clear that in the vast tragedy which has befallen large portions of the earth there are dangers to the American nations, as well, which it would be suicidal not to recognize in time and not to prepare to meet fully and decisively.

It has been increasingly clear that our nations must not blind themselves into fatal complacency as so many nations have done to their mortal sorrow—regarding the possibility of attack against them from without or of externally directed attempts from within to undermine their national strength and to subvert their cherished social and political institutions, or both. Too many nations have only recently paid a tragic price for confidently placing reliance for their safety and security solely upon clearly expressed desire to remain at peace, upon unequivocally proclaimed neutrality, upon scrupulous avoidance of provocation. Conquerors, invaders, and destroyers ignore or brush aside reasons such as these. Looming ominously on our horizon is the danger that attempts may be made to employ against our nations, too, the same means of subordinating their destinies to control and dictation from abroad that have already been notoriously employed elsewhere against numerous other countries. We must recognize the serious possibility that no effort or method may be spared to achieve, with respect to some of us, economic domination and political penetration, and to sow, among our nations, the seeds of suspicion, dissension and discord-the frequent prelude to even more menacing action.

Lest our nations, too, suffer the fate that has already befallen so many other peace-loving and peace-seeking nations, wisdom and prudence require that we have in our hands adequate means of defense. To that end, in the face of common danger, our nations are already working together, in accordance with their firmly established practice of free consultation among equals and of voluntary cooperation with regard to problems which are of common concern to all of us. It is to examine such of these problems as are immediately pressing and to seek for them most effective solutions that the representatives of the 21 American Republics have come together at this time.

I

I should like to consider first the situation which confronts us in the economic sphere.

The war now in progress has brought with it a disruption in the channels of international commerce and a curtailment of foreign markets for the products of the Western Hemisphere. This has meant to many American nations a diminution of foreign exchange resources and a loss of purchasing power sufficiently serious to place severe strains on their national economies. In some cases, stagnant surpluses of commodities, the exportation of which is essential to the economic life of the countries concerned, have accumulated and continue to accumulate. Their existence is a matter of present and future concern to farmers, workers, businessmen, and governments throughout the continental area.

We must assume that these difficulties will continue certainly as long as the war exists. We must anticipate that these problems, and possibly others, will continue for some time after the war ends.

If the standards of living of the American peoples are to be maintained at levels already achieved, and particularly if they are to be raised in accordance with the legitimate aspirations of these peoples, production and distribution must expand, not only in this hemisphere, but throughout the world. This same condition is essential to the well-being of all other areas. For no nation or group of nations can hope to become or to remain prosperous when growing poverty stalks the rest of the earth.

Under existing conditions, the problem is singularly pressing. Though war now is in progress, we must contemplate its eventual end. At that time, perhaps 80 millions of people in Europe, and many millions in other parts of the world, who have been entirely engaged in war work, must find a new place for themselves in the economics of peace. At the same time, it is to be assumed that, once the pressures of war are ended, there will be a general demand that reasonable conditions of life may be restored. To effect this transition, and to supply the world with what it then needs, will necessitate a great increase in production, distribution, and exchange of goods. Failure to achieve this can only mean that the tragedy of war should be followed by the still greater horror of disintegration in great areas.

It is plain that international commerce is indispensable if economic rehabilitation is to be achieved. It is also plain that the only available means of doing this is to resume, as soon as circumstances permit, the normal currents of world trade. I have no doubt that the American republics are ready and indeed anxious to do their part in bringing this about; though the extent to which we can thus play our part must depend materially on the economic methods and policies pursued by other countries.

We are confronted with two opposite trading methods. Open trade, freed as rapidly as may be practicable from the obstruction and regimentation of excessive restrictions, can accomplish the necessary task. Prosperity for the American republics or for any part of the world cannot be achieved-even the necessities of the war-torn areas of the earth cannot be met by regimented or restricted trade especially directed under a policy of national or regional autarchy. We recognize the need for a transition period; but we are convinced that there can be only one satisfactory permanent policy.

We have long known from experience that international trade inevitably declines in volume and usefulness when it is conducted on a basis of exclusive bilateralism, or is pressed to unfair advantage, or is used to attempt economic domination. Eventually, such methods destroy the trade and the trader alike. In the present situation, they are totally unable to provide that volume and distribution of goods which alone can save great areas from intense distress. Only where equal treatment, fair practices, nondiscrimination and peaceful motives lie beneath trade, can it develop to the degree needed to rehabilitate a shattered world and to provide a foundation for further economic progress.

Today, in spite of what has occurred in other parts of the world, the American nations continue to adhere to liberal trade principles and are applying them in their relations with each other as fully as the present state of affairs permits. They should be prepared to resume the conduct of trade with the entire world on this basis as rapidly as other nations are willing to do likewise.

In the meantime, the American nations must and should do everything in their power to strengthen their own economic position, to improve further the trade and other economic relations between and among themselves, and to devise and apply appropriate means of effective action to cope with the difficulties, disadvantages, and dangers of the present disturbed and dislocated world conditiors. To accomplish these purposes, the nations of the Western Hemisphere should undertake the fullest measure of economic cooperation, so designed and so conducted as to serve the best interests of each nation and to bring injury to none. Progress has already been made toward the forging of new tools to carry out certain phases of economic cooperation on an inter-American basis. The InterAmerican Financial and Economic Advisory Committee, which was established last November pursuant to a resolution of the Panama meeting, has proven itself to be an efficient body for considering and working out such mechanisms. It has recently created the Inter-American Development Commission to carry out the work of planning and promoting the development of new productive facilities in the American Republics. In addition, it prepared the framework for the establishment of an Inter-American Bank to foster cooperation in the spheres of long-term development and of money and foreign exchange. The Government of the United States is taking steps to implement the Inter-American Bank Convention and urges that the governments of the other American republics give their cooperation so that this important institution may be placed into operation as rapidly as possible.

Useful as these organizations can be in the long run, there remains the immediately pressing situation confronting the American republics as a result of the curtailment and changed character of important foreign markets. Fully realizing that under present disturbed conditions no nation can expect to maintain a normal economic situation, and in order to meet the emergencies which confront their nations, the governments of the American republics, it is believed, should give consideration to the following program of immediate cooperative action:

1. Strengthening and expansion of the activities of the Inter-American Financial and Economic Advisory Committee as an instrument for continuing consultation with respect to trade matters, including especially the situation immediately confronting the American republics as a result of the curtailment and changed character of important foreign markets.

2. Creation of facilities for the temporary handling and orderly marketing of accumulated surpluses of those commodities which are of primary importance to the maintenance of the economic life of the American republics, whenever such action becomes necessary.

3. Development of commodity agreements with a view to assuring equitable terms of trade for both producers and consumers of the commodities concerned. 4. Consideration of methods for improving the standard of living of the peoples of the Americas, including public health measures, nutrition studies, and suitable organizations for the relief distribution of some part of any surplus commodities.

The Government of the United States of America has already utilized its existing agencies to enter into mutually advantageous cooperative arrangements with a number of American republics in connection with programs for the development of their national economies and by way of assistance to their central banks in monetary and foreign-exchange matters.

It is now taking steps which will make possible the extension of both the volume and character of the operations of such agencies. When these steps have been completed, the Government of the United States of America will be in a position to expand its cooperative efforts with other American nations in the fields of long-term development and of monetary and exchange matters.

It will also be able to participate in immediate joint action with other nations of this hemisphere to meet pressing trade situations which may arise before the program outlined has come into operation.

Finally, it will be enabled to enter effectively into the cooperative program as it proceeds, assisting in the temporary handling and orderly marketing of the important commodities of the hemisphere; implementing, on its part, the commodity agreements which are developed; and carrying out other operations in volving such export products.

While the proposed measures are being developed, consideration should be given to the desirability of a broader system of inter-American cooperative organization in trade matters to complement inter-American cooperative organizations in the field of long-term economic development and of money and foreign exchange. By helping each other, by carrying out with vigor, determination, and loyalty whatever decisions are reached, the American nations can build a system of economic defense that will enable each of them to safeguard itself from the dangers of economic subordination from abroad and of economic distress at home. It is no part of our thought to obstruct in any way logical and natural trade with Europe or with any other portion of the world, but rather to promote such trade with nations willing to meet us, in good faith, in a spirit of friendly and peaceful purpose, and on a plane of frank and fair dealing. Against any other kind of dealing, we naturally will protect ourselves.

II

The solution of our economic problems alone is not enough to preserve the peace and security of this hemisphere. There exist also other problems, which are of an altogether different character but the solution of which is of no less importance to our freedom and independence.

I refer to the threat to our security arising from activities directed from without. the hemisphere but which operate within our respective borders. A new and evil technique has been invented which seeks by devious methods to corrupt the body politic in order to subject it to alien purposes. With cynical effrontery, sanctuary within the generous citadels of free speech and freedom of assembly is demanded by agents whose masters would obliterate those institutions and foment instead dissension, prejudice, fear, and hatred.

Make no mistake concerning the purposes of this sinister campaign. It is an attempt to acquire domination of the American republics by foreign governments: in their own interest. Already we have seen the tragic results abroad when governmental structures have been undermined and the fabric of established institutions riddled by the termites of alien propaganda.

We long ago recognized the source and extent of this infection and have already taken some steps to eradicate it. At Lima we declared that it was incompatible with the sovereignty of any American Republic that persons or groups within our countries should be controlled by any outside government for its own purposes. It is now urgently incumbent upon us to take decisive remedial action to the end that the independence and political integrity of each of the American Republics may be fully safeguarded.

To this no friendly government can legitimately object. The inter-American system carries no implication of agression and no threat to any nation. It is based solely on a policy of self-defense, designed to preserve the independence and the integrity of each of the American nations. It implies no hegemony on the part of any member of the inter-American group; but it equally rejects the thesis of hegemony by anyone else. It resembles in no way regional policies recently pursued in other parts of the world, which pretend to invoke our interAmerican system as precedent. The difference is that our sole purpose is selfdefense, while these other policies seem instead to be pretexts for conquest by the sword, for military occupation and for complete economic and political domination of other free and independent peoples.

III

There are other pressing political problems arising out of the vast changes which have taken place on the continent of Europe. The principles on which we act with respect to these problems have been forged by the American Republics through years of discussion and practice. They are applied entirely without discrimination, solely for the purpose of assuring that the security of the American Hemisphere shall not be impaired by the repercussions of warfare elsewhere. Specifically, there is before us the problem of the status of European possessions in this hemisphere. These geographic regions have not heretofore constituted a menace to the peace of the Americas; their administrations were established, for the most part, many generations ago and, in our time, have acted as congenial neighbors. We have no desire to absorb these possessions or to extend our sovereignty over them, or to include them in any form of sphere of influence.

We could not, however, permit these regions to become a subject of barter in the settlement of European differences, or a battleground for the adjustment of such differences. Either situation could only be regarded as a threat to the

peace and safety of this hemisphere, as would any indication that they might be used to promote systems alien to the inter-American system. Any effort, therefore, to modify the existing status of these areas-whether by cession, by transfer, or by any impairment whatsoever in the control heretofore exercised-would be of profound and immediate concern to all the American Republics.

It is accordingly essential that we consider a joint approach to this common problem. We must be in a position to move rapidly and without hestitation.

It has been suggested that our action take the form of the establishment of a collective trusteeship, to be exercised in the name of all of the American Republics. The Government of the United States endorses this suggestion and is prepared to cooperate, should occasion arise, in its execution.

The establishment of a collective trusteeship for any region must not carry with it any thought of the creation of a special interest by any American Republic. The purpose of a collective trusteeship must be to further the interests and security of all of the American nations, as well as the interest of the region in question. Moreover, as soon as conditions permit, the region should be restored to its original sovereign or be declared independent when able to establish and maintain stable self-government. IV

Seldom has a meeting of friendly nations opened in an atmosphere of more widespread misconception and more flagrant misrepresentation as to its aims and purposes than have emanated in recent weeks, from responsible and irresponsible quarters, in connection with this meeting.

We have met to consult together regarding our own pressing problems. We covet nothing anywhere in the world. We are free from the spirit of enmity toward any nation. But we cannot fail to be acutely conscious of the dangers which confront us as a result of present world conditions and against which we are taking and intend to take fully adequate measures of defense. National life itself today imposes as an absolute obligation the will to national defense, should national institutions or integrity ever be threatened. Achievement of this requires that we call out anew the endless energy, the complete spirit of sacrifice, the iron will, which characterized the pioneers, the liberators, and the defenders, to whom we owe our present freedom. Let no man say that in the world of today any nation not willing to defend itself is safe. The fortitude and resolution of our forefathers won for us our free institutions. We proudly have inherited them, and proudly are prepared to maintain them.

At the same time, while meeting the imperative needs of emergency conditions we must--and, I am certain, we will continue our abiding faith that what is happening today is but a temporary interruption in the progress of civilization. Mankind can advance only when human freedom is secure; when the right of selfgovernment is safeguarded; when all nations recognize each other's right to conduct its internal affairs free from outside interference; when there exist among nations respect for the pledged word, determination to abstain from the use of armed force in pursuit of policy, and willingness to settle controversies by none but peaceful means; when international economic relations are based upon mutual benefit, equality of treatment, and fair dealing.

In 1937, in an attempt to prevent the impending catastrophe of a new war, the Government of the United States addressed a communication to all nations, reciting these basic principles of orderly international relations under the rule of law as the foundation of its foreign policy and inviting comment thereon. More than 50 nations expressed on that occasion their belief in the validity of these principles. At Montevideo, at Buenos Aires, at Lima, at Panama, the 21 American republics proclaimed their acceptance.

I am confident that, sooner or later, the entire world must return to a system of international relations based on those principles. They are the only possible foundation stones of an organized society assured of enduring peace and of sustained prosperity. The price of their abandonment is the chaos of international anarchy and the inexorable impoverishment of nations and individuals, such as we witness today in Europe and in Asia.

In a system of cooperative peace such as we envisage there is no exclusion. Its underlying principles are universal in their applicability; they can be accepted by all nations to the benefit of each and all; they must be accepted by all, if the light of modern civilization is not to be extinguished. Any nation which in good faith accepts and practices them automatically shares in the vast benefits they

confer.

At this time, when these principles and these ideals are being widely challenged, when institutions based on them are being crushed by force over large areas of the