REPLY TO BRITAIN

Grey River Argus, 20 January 1940, Page 7

REPLY TO BRITAIN

FROM THE AMERICAS Neutral Zone Reaffirmed fAnst & N.7,./cable Assn] (Received January 19 11.50 pm.) ' BUENOS AIRES, January 18. ■ /’V! 16 result of the recent British Note to the Pan-American Governments on their proposed safety zone President Cantilo,.in a statement, said: “Britain and other belligerents are closing their eyes to reality, if they are pretending that international law ,is so fixed that the American Republics cannot legally Protect their shores from incursions of the European War.” He admitted that alterations to international law. must be made by mutual agreement among all the interested nations. The American Republics were not trying to legislate for others. “The rules which‘they adopt,’’ he said, “are applicable only m the Americas. But, similarly the belligerents must be . willing to negotiate with the neutrals as equals instead of forcing unilateral decisions upon them.”

President Cantilo expressed the opinion that it was perfectly feasible to concilate into a treaty agreement the apparently widely-divergent viewpoints of the British and the Pan-Amerfcan Governments regarding the safety zone.

President Cantilo fully agreed with the British thesis that . the safety zone must not be permitted to become a safety zone for Germans, but he disagreed with the contention that there is nothing in international which authorises neutrals to apply sanctions against belligerents violating this zone.

-He cited Article Nine of. Tha Hague Convention, and Article Thirteen of the 1917 Convention providing that a neutral may prohibit the access to the ports of any belligerent vessel not complying with, the orders or resolutions decreed by the neutral.

President Cantilo said that if the Allies agreed not to send warships into the safety zone, it would be possible to get Germany to, agree, likewise. ’ ’ .; He disclosed the Argentina’s proposed internment of all belligerent merchantmen remaining too long in American ports. He added that a further clarification was needed of the British contention that the; zone should not be used to permit- German warships or auxiliaries to pass from ocean to ocean. He pointed out that the only possible channels were the Straits of. Magellan, and the Panama Canal, any impedimenting of which would probably cause Britain to protest.