What position did Carlos Saavedra Lamas take between Feb 1916 and Jul 1916?
Carlos Saavedra Lamas Carlos Saavedra Lamas ( November 1 , 1878–May 5 , 1959 ) was an Argentine academic and politician , and in 1936 , the first Argentine Nobel Peace Prize recipient . Biography . Born in Buenos Aires , Saavedra Lamas was a descendant of an early Argentine patriot . He married the daughter of president Roque Sáenz Peña . Saavedra Lamas achieved renown not only as foreign minister of Argentina for his practical work in drafting international agreements and in conducting international mediation , but also as a professor for his scholarship in the fields of labor legislation and international law . Saavedra Lamas was a distinguished student at Lacordaire College and at the [ University of Buenos Aires ] where he received the Doctor of Laws degree in 1903 , summa cum laude . After study in Paris and travel abroad , he accepted a professorship in law and constitutional history at the University of La Plata , where he began the teaching career that was to span more than forty years . Later , he inaugurated a course in sociology at the University of Buenos Aires , taught political economy and constitutional law in the Law School of the university , and eventually served as the president of the university . Saavedra Lamas was a leading Argentine academician in two areas . A pioneer in the field of labor legislation , he edited several treatises on labor legislation in Argentina and on the need for a universally recognized doctrine on the treatment of labor - among them , Centro de legislacíon social y del trabajo ( 1927 ) [ Center of Social and Labor Legislation ] , Traités internationaux de type social ( 1924 ) , Código nacional del trabajo ( three volumes , 1933 ) [ National Code of Labor Law ] . In the arena of practical affairs , Saavedra Lamas drafted legislation affecting labor in Argentina , supported the founding of the International Labor Organization in 1919 , and presided over the ILO Conference of 1928 in Geneva while serving simultaneously as leader of the Argentine delegation . In international law , his other field of major scholarly interest , he published La Crise de la codification et de la doctrine Argentine de droit international ( 1931 ) ; and he spoke , wrote , or drafted legislation on many subjects with international ramifications - among them , asylum , colonization , immigration , arbitration , and international peace . His brief Vida internacional , which he wrote at the age of seventy , is an urbane by-product of all this study and experience . Saavedra Lamas began his political career in 1906 as director of Public Credit and then became the secretary-general for the municipality of Buenos Aires in 1907 . In 1908 he was elected to the first of two successive terms in Parliament . There he initiated legislation regarding coastal water rights , irrigation , sugar production , government finances , colonization , and immigration . His main interest , however , lay in foreign affairs . He provided leadership in saving Argentinas arbitration treaty with Italy , which almost foundered in 1907–1908 , and eventually became the unofficial adviser to both the legislature and the foreign office on the analysis and implications of proposed foreign treaties . Saavedra Lamas though was also a controversial public figure as he was seen by the masses as an elitist patrician who was too conservative and favored British intervention , especially in railroad construction . Appointed minister of Justice and Education in 1915 , he instituted educational reforms by integrating the different divisions of public education and by developing a curriculum at the intermediate level for the vocational and technical training of manpower needed in a developing industrial country . When General Agustín P . Justo became president of Argentina in 1932 , he appointed Saavedra Lamas as foreign minister . In this post for six years , Saavedra Lamas brought international prestige to Argentina . He played an important role in every South American diplomatic issue of the middle thirties , induced Argentina to rejoin the League of Nations after an absence of thirteen years , and represented Argentina at virtually every international meeting of consequence during this period . His work in ending the Chaco War between Paraguay and Bolivia ( 1932–1935 ) had not only local significance but generalized international importance as well . When he took over the foreign office , he immediately engaged in a series of moves to lay the diplomatic groundwork for a negotiated settlement of this dispute . In 1932 he initiated at Washington the Declaration of August 3 which put the American states on record as refusing to recognize any territorial change in the hemisphere brought about by force . Next , he drew up a Treaty of Nonaggression and Conciliation which was signed by six South American countries in October , 1933 , and by all of the American countries at the Seventh Pan-American Conference at Montevideo two months later . In 1935 he organized mediation by six neutral American nations which resulted in the cessation of hostilities between Paraguay and Bolivia . Meanwhile , in 1934 , Saavedra Lamas presented the South American Antiwar Pact to the League of Nations where it was well received and signed by eleven countries . Acclaimed for all of these efforts , he was elected president of the Assembly of the League of Nations in 1936 . After his retirement from the foreign ministry in 1938 , Saavedra Lamas returned to academic life , became president of the University of Buenos Aires for two years ( 1941–1943 ) , and rounded out his career as a professor for an additional three years ( 1943–1946 ) . Saavedra Lamas was known as a strict disciplinarian in his office , a logician at the conference table , a charming host in his home or his art gallery , and a man of sartorial elegance who wore , it is said , the highest collars in Buenos Aires . In addition to the Nobel Peace Prize , he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor of France and analogous honors from ten other countries . He died in 1959 at the age of eighty from the effects of a brain hemorrhage . In March 2014 his solid gold Nobel medal was put up for auction after being found in a South American pawn shop . In August 2014 a project for rebuying his Nobel medal by the Argentine Nation was presented at the Argentine congress . His auctioned medal was later won and is now owned by a private Asian collector .