Evening star., 1940-07-28
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operate in almost any action pro-
posed by their bigger and stronger
neighbor that did not infringe upon
their national pride and left them
some say-so about details.
All of them had their own ideas
about specific points in fields of
particular concern to them, of
course, and some had their own pet
projects. But, in the main, it was
United States leadership that gave
direction to the conference.
Secretary of State Hull sounded
the keynote for the entire meeting
in his address to its second plenary
session Monday, outlining compre-
hensively and realistically the
pressing problems confronting the
Americas as the result of forces
of ruthless conquest" marching over
much of the rest of the world, and
laying down suggestions for basis
of action to meet them.
He was ready with the rough
drafts of resolutions and conven-
tions to implement his proposals.
The quality of his leadership was
demonstrated by his methods of
submitting his suggestions for ac-
ton, Instead of bluntly coming out
with proposals claiming to have all
the answers to questions before the
conference, he carefully consulted
all the delegates he could reach for
| informal talks, inviting ideas from
them and putting forth his own
views as primarily a framework
around which conference decisions
nigh the built. In most cases he
found general agreement with the
objectives he had in mind. Differ
ent opinions of some of the other
delegates about methods we're in
corporated into the original draft
proposals brought from Washington.
Eager for Unity.
AS a result. when proposed reso-
lutions embodying principles held
vital by Secretary Hull were pre-
sented to conference committees for
formal consideration, they already
had the understanding support of a
number of nations. Anxious to
avoid any clash of pride over author
ship and much more eager for unity
on objectives than credit for him
self, Mr. Hull then co-operated in
work of committees to sift whatever
varying proposals there were on
different subjects and to draft
recommendation for final adoption
that would represent the views of
the entire committee rather than of
any one man.
1t was the committees task to at
tempt to reconcile the few important
clashes of opinion, but even here
the hard-working United States
delegation provided the leadership,
carrying on innumerable conversa-
tions in hotel rooms day and night,
trying to lay the groundwork for a
meeting of minds.
Obviously the biggest gap to be
bridged lay between the desire of
the United States and a majority
of its sister republics for positive,
concrete action to combat the i'm
mediate threats of Nazi economic
and political domination, and Ar
gentlna's apparent desire to side
step what others were convinced
were vital issues. Thus conversa-
tions between Secretary Hull and
DR.. Leopoldo Melo, the Argentine
delegate, assumed major signifi-
canoe. The greatest conflict in
their views concerned the question
of what the Americas should do to
prevent possessions of European
powers in the New World falling
into the hands of Germany. DR..
Melo was holding out against ef-
fectlve preventive action on the
ground that only the free will of
the peoples of the regions involved
should determine their status, while
Mr.. Hull advocated strong pre-
ventive measures in the interest of
hemisphere security.
Feared Loss of Markets.
In his opening speech to the con-
ference DR.. Melo said Argentina
identified herself with the future
destiny of the Americas in complete
solidarity and considered it prudent
to prepare to meet the dangers con-
fronting the hemisphere. But he
remained to be convinced that the
action wanted by the nations re-
spending to United States leader
ship did not constitute a program
based on "conjectural hypothesis"
which might get participating
countries into trouble in view of
rapid changes in the nature of
problems it was designed to meet.
Argentina's principal concern in
this regard was understood to in
volve fears that she might find her
markets in a Nazi dominated Eu-
rope cut off permanently without
any other adequate outlet for the
goods she must export to live.
The majority opinion, however,
seemed to be that neither Germany
or any other nation would have any
right to take offense at measures
undertaken by the Americas solely
for self-protection and non-aggres-
sive toward any one, and that in
any event it was better to run
such risk than to leave them
selves without any defense against
known attempts already under way
by the Nazis to gain domination
of their governments through eco
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