Evening star., 1937-01-17

definite and for the first time CO.
ordinated machinery. Article II re-
iterates that the high contracting
parties shall have the duty OF fur-
theiring the observance of the sew
eral agreements enumerated in Ar
ticle I" and, then. the subsequent SIX
articles describe in detail the steps
to be taken for that purpose, up to
the time when, all other means
having been exhausted. "a common
and SOLITARY attitude Of neutrality"
with possible embargoes, may be
adopted against the reluctant parties. |
That is as far as the American |
nations can afford to go until they |
have agreed on a common definition
of an aggreSsor, for clearly it would |
not be in the interest of peace or
justice, or even neutrality, to deny |
means with which to defend itself to |
a country which had become the VIC
tim of aggression, particularly If that
country happened to be one, like
Bolivia, without access to the sea.
Provided they proceed in good faith,
the governments of the American re-
publics now have not merely the obj
CATION to consult one another in
order to preserve peace, but also the
machinery to render that consulta-
tion effective. Of course, in the
absence of good faith no machinery.
short of military force could avail, but
that is another matter. In order to
pass upon the necessarily slow prog
ress of international law one must. at
least, give the contracting governments
the benefit of the doubt. Otherwise
all discussion would be superfluous
Further Gains Seen.
But the gains involved in the Buenos
Aires convention do not stop there.
Several important loopholes which the
experience of the past few years had
revealed now are remedied. as may be
seen by the provision specifying that
any state, by its single action, may
put into motion the machinery for
consultation. Also the one establish
ing that all parties to controversy
which has gone beyond the stage of
direct diplomatic action must keep
the other Signatory states informed of
the progress of negotiations. Or the
binding agreement that during cog
nizance of the dispute by the high
contracting parties the states in con-
troversy will not resort to hostilities
or take military action preliminary to
hostilitieS. Or the innovating rule
that for the purpose of applying the
neutrality policy, with all its conse-
Quences, it will not be necessary to
wait for an official declaration of war
from one of the parties to a conflict,
but each individual state reserves the
right to take notice of the situation
| and declare that state of war exists
between any two or more of them,
not excluding-and this is quite i'm
portant-states which have failed to
ratify the convention.
| Each one of these gains is an evil
dent improvement over the state of
things prior to the Buenos Aires con-
! ference. Added to the main accom-
plishment of pledge of joint con-
sulation within a definite and CO.
ordinated machinery for peace, they
should suffice to lay at rest all charges
of futility. Yet, there are two other
concrete achievements of the Buenos
Aires parley: The mutual assistance
pledged against nom n-American aggres-
sion and the non-intervention agree
ment, two of the things for which
Latin Americans had fought for dec
AIDES. and some of them. now, seem
to be unable to appreciate properly.
but they must be dealt with sep
arately.
tCopyright, 1881