declaration of neutrality of the American republics, which was adopted at the Panamá Meeting on October 3, 1939.

(3) Exchange of information on activities which may develop within the territory and jurisdiction of any American republic that tend to endanger the common American democratic ideal.

(4) Consideration of the humanitarian activities which, in a coordinated manner, can be conducted by the governments of the American republics, the national Red Cross societies, and other entities created for the purpose, for the benefit of refugees, prisoners, and other victims of the war.

II. PROTECTION OF THE PEACE OF THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE

Consideration of measures to be taken with a view to the preservation of the sovereignty and peace of the nations of the Western Hemisphere:

(1) The study, in accordance with resolution XVI approved by the Meeting of Panamá on October 3, 1939, of the problems which may confront the American republics in case the sovereignty now exercised by non-American states over geographic regions of the Americas is relinquished, lapses, or is materially impaired.

(2) The examination of the measures which have been or may be proposed in order to insure the attainment of the objectives set forth in the Joint Declaration of Continental Solidarity, the General Declaration of Neutrality, the Declaration of Panamá, and the consideration of the problems of continental security.

(3) The examination of the machinery of inter-American consultation created by the Buenos Aires and Lima Conferences, with a view to determining the steps which may be taken to increase its effectiveness.

III. ECONOMIC COOPERATION

(1) Consideration of the measures which have already been proposed by the Inter-American Financial and Economic Advisory Committee.

(2) Examination of additional measures the adoption of which may be desirable under present circumstances or which it may be desired to refer to the Inter-American Financial and Economic Advisory Committee for immediate analysis and recommendation.

Appendix 3

REGULATIONS OF THE MEETING

CHAPTER I

Personnel of the Meeting

DELEGATES

ARTICLE 1. The delegates shall be the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the respective American republics or such representatives as may be designated, who shall meet for the purpose of consultation under the inter-American agreements of Buenos Aires and Lima.

In order to advise the Ministers of Foreign Affairs or their representatives, their respective delegates may attend the meetings of the conference without voice or vote.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs may designate a delegate to substitute for him when he cannot attend a meeting in person, provided the Secretary General receives prior notification thereof.

ARTICLE 2. The Director General of the Pan American Union shall be considered as a member ex officio of the Meeting, but without the right to vote.

The Meeting may request the technical cooperation of the special committees created by the Meetings of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the American Republics.

PRESIDING OFFICER

ARTICLE 3. The President of the Republic of Cuba shall designate the Temporary President, who shall preside at the opening session and shall continue to preside until a Permanent President is elected.

ARTICLE 4. In the absence of the Permanent President the sessions shall be presided over by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs or their representatives attending the Meeting, in accordance with lots that shall be drawn at the first session and that will also determine the order of precedence of their location.

SECRETARY GENERAL

ARTICLE 5. The Secretary General shall be appointed by the President of the Republic of Cuba. It shall be his duty to prepare the minutes of the meetings and to supervise the work of the personnel of the secretariat.

CHAPTER II

Committees

ARTICLE 6. The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the American republics or their representatives shall meet as a committee for the

purpose of considering the topics on the agenda and such other questions as may be proposed and accepted by a two-thirds vote of the nations represented.

ARTICLE 7. There shall be a Committee on Credentials, appointed at the first session, and a Drafting Committee which shall consist of one representative for each of the official languages.

ARTICLE 8. There shall be such other committees as may be considered necessary to study, report, and formulate projects for the consideration of the full committee.

ARTICLE 9. Each committee shall elect its own chairman and designate the reporting delegate who shall report the conclusions of the committee to the full committee.

ARTICLE 10. Prior to the first plenary session of the Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs or their representatives, a preliminary session shall be held to consider questions of organization for submission to the plenary session.

ARTICLE 11. The conclusions at which the Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs or their representatives may arrive shall, prior to formal approval, be submitted to the Drafting Committee for coordination of the text in the several official languages.

ARTICLE 12. The official languages of the Meeting shall be Spanish, English, Portuguese, and French.

CHAPTER III

Meetings

ARTICLE 13. To hold a meeting it is necessary that the delegates of a majority of the nations represented be present.

ARTICLE 14. Each republic represented shall have but one vote, and the votes shall be taken separately by countries and shall be recorded in the minutes.

Votes, as a general rule, shall be taken orally, unless any delegate shall request that they be taken in writing. In this case each delegation shall deposit in an urn a ballot containing the name of the nation and the sense in which the vote is cast. The Secretary General shall read aloud these ballots and count the votes.

ARTICLE 15. No vote shall be taken on any report, project, or proposal relating to any of the subjects included in the program, except when delegates from at least two thirds of the nations represented are in attendance.

ARTICLE 16. Except in cases otherwise indicated in these regulations, proposals, reports, and projects shall be considered approved when they have obtained the affirmative vote of an absolute majority of the countries represented at the meeting where the vote is taken.

ARTICLE 17. The opening and closing sessions of the Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs or their representatives shall be public. Other public sessions may be held when previously agreed upon and so ordered by the delegates.

CHAPTER IV

Minutes of the Sessions and Publications of the Meeting

ARTICLE 18. The Secretary General shall keep verbatim minutes of the public meetings held by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs or their representatives, and prepare a summarized record of other sessions.

Of the committees, the secretary of each committee shall prepare a brief minute of each session, in which shall be summarized the remarks of the delegates, and in which shall be recorded in full the conclusions at which the committee may arrive.

ARTICLE 19. The conclusions at which the Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs may arrive shall be incorporated in a final act, which shall be signed by the delegates at the final session.

ARTICLE 20. The Government of Cuba shall publish the minutes and the final act and shall transmit copies to the governments of the American republics, to the delegates attending the sessions, and to the Pan American Union.

ARTICLE 21. The original minutes and the original copy of the final act shall be preserved in the archives of the Pan American Union, to which they shall be sent by the Secretary General.

ADDRESSES MADE AT THE MEETING

Appendix 4

ADDRESS DELIVERED BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUB

LIC OF CUBA, DR. FEDERICO LAREDO BRÚ, AT THE

INAUGURAL SESSION OF THE MEETING

EXCELLENCIES:

[Translation]

For the second time, the unusual responsibility of a high function that places in your worthy hands the destiny of 21 nations, entreats you urgently to put solemnly into words the anxious but firm will of Free America.

The first reunion that you held in Panamá, following the agreements of Buenos Aires and Lima, was an important landmark in inter-American relations, and the records of that Conference bear witness to the momentous agreements that strengthened the continental friendship, binding us to each other and maintaining our countries

in their traditional adherence to the laws and rules that have given life and success to their democratic institutions and even now, in the midst of disconcerting events, make our relations with the other countries peaceful, decent, and respectable.

This time you have elected to meet at Habana, the Capital City of one of the last republics to constitute itself in this hemisphere, one which never was remiss in asserting the ideals characteristically American, based on Liberty, Peace, and International Justice, the very same which inspired the heroic decisions and the immortal exploits of our illustrious men-companions of Washington-Bolívar, Hidalgo, San Martín, Sucre, Artigas, Petión, Duarte among others, who fought indefatigably to the end, for the independence of the Cuban people.

Certainly this great assembly does not evoke the historic memories lent to your first meeting in Panamá by the fact that it took place in that legendary city where was held the very first conference of the American countries, called by Bolívar to resist the designs of foreign regimes, anxious to reestablish their lordship over these lands, where eventually Right would triumph: the historical coincidence happily pointed out by the late, illustrious President Arosemena, whose recent death was so deeply mourned by the whole continent.

Habana will not awake in you recollections of such prestige, but you will find, at least, a people whose apostles of its political faith have exerted themselves to stress the necessity of promoting an interAmerican common feeling: a people whose independence has been kneaded not only with the blood of its sons but also with the blood and encouragements of other continental peoples.

José Martí is one of the forerunners of that movement, and this sentence of his was fittingly selected by his countrymen to be engraved on the bronze fence encircling the Tree of the American Fraternity:

It is the hour of the recounting and the united march, and we must go forward closely pressed together, like the silver ore in the roots of the Andes. America, constituted by states of a similar political organization, hatched in the warmth of the same afflictions and analogous enthusiasms, had created, by living together in sympathetic neighborhood, an atmosphere of fraternal regionalisms which would have permitted our hemisphere to keep itself, within its geographical unity and its peaceful tradition, away from conflicts not directly affecting it. We lived decorously in peace and aimed at keeping that peace. Our aspirations could not have been nobler nor our behavior more specifically transparent.

We envied no one anything; our sole preoccupation was the thriving of our democratic institutions, which we considered good enough