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THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
THE BRAZILIAN
GREEN BOOK
CONSISTING OF DIPLOMATIC DOCU- MENTS RELATING TO BRAZIL'S ATTITUDE WITH REGARD TO THE EUROPEAN WAR :: :: 1914— 1917
AS ISSUED BY THE BRAZILIAN MINISTRY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS
AUTHORIZED ENGLISH VERSION, WITH AN INTRODUCTION and NOTES by ANDREW BOYLE
LONDON : GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD. RUSKIN HOUSE 40 MUSEUM STREET W.C. i.
NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
First published in igiB
t)
{All rights reserved)
INTRODUCTION
The attitude of the Brazilian Government at the outbreak of the war was extremely correct. If ** the sympathies of public opinion favoured the liberal cause of the Allies/' as the President stated in his reply to the Pope's Peace Note, when the recog- nition of a state of war with Germany gave him greater freedom of speech, the action of the Government gave evidence of the highest conception of neutrality. This attitude was consis- tently maintained until, at the beginning of 1917, the German Government gave notice of unrestricted submarine warfare. The Brazilian Government did not hesitate then to declare (February 9, 1917) through its representative in Berlin, that it could not accept the proposed blockade as effective, and left with the Imperial German Government full responsibility for anything that might happen to Brazilian interests thereby ; it made clear further (February 13) that no Brazilian ship should be attacked on any pretext whatever. This was as far as it was prepared to go at the time, waiting for some concrete out- rage on its sovereignty before taking further action. On this account, it replied to President Wilson's invitation (February 5) to break off relations with Germany, by stating (February 8) the attitude it had assumed.
This was followed, two months later, by the torpedoing (April 4) of the Brazilian ship Parand. An inquiry having estabUshed the guilt of Germany, the Brazihan Government proceeded to break off diplomatic relations with that country. In the note announcing this to the German Minister, the Brazilian Foreign Office set forth its arguments, basing them upon the opinion of German and Brazilian jurists. Beyond cancelling the exequatur of German Consuls in Brazil and exercising, for the public safety, supervision to prevent the destruction, by the crews, of the interned German ships, iio reprisals were taken as yet, and Germany was still treated as a neutral.
Thus the announcement (April 7) of a state of war between the United States of America and Germany was followed
6 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
(April 25) by a decree proclaiming Brazil's neutrality : this decree was not exactly similar to the previous decrees of neu- traUty, and expressly stated that neutrality was to be observed until the contrary was ordered. Yet it cannot be said to have represented the will of the country, but, as the President pointed out in his Message to Congress (May 22), the Government could not juridically go further than that ; it was for the country, through its representatives in Congress, to take up a new attitude. In any case, one of the results, not necessarily direct, of this decree, was the resignation of General Lauro Miiller, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and the appointment of Dr. Nilo Pe^anha in his place.
This change was followed by the return of Brazil to her former policy of continental soUdarity, and the President recommended Congress (May 22) to give effect to this policy by adopting the attitude that Brazil could not remain neutral towards the United States when involved, in defence of her rights, with a foreign Power, since she was united to that country by bonds of the closest friendship. The Message was deUvered at the time when it was announced that the Brazilian ship Tijuca had been torpedoed. Congress adopted a resolution to revoke Brazil's neutrality with respect to the United States, and, as a reprisal for the torpedoing of the l^ijuca, authorized the Executive Power to utilize the German ships in Brazilian harbours. To Germany's protest, through the Netherlands Legation, against this utilization, the Brazilian Foreign Office replied by quoting the German jurist Heffter on the subject of reprisals.
The revocation of Brazilian neutrality was thought to afford an opportunity to address to the friendly Powers a circular note explaining the Brazilian attitude towards the United States along the hnes of Pan-Americanism, and formulating the now well-known interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine in the form of continental solidarity.
The effect of this note among the nations of America must be reckoned according to expectations. The most direct result was the Uruguayan Decree of June 18, by which Uruguay refused to consider as a belUgerent any American nation, which, in defence of her rights, was involved in a war with a Power of another continent. Paraguay had already (April 16) spoken of the modification which neutraUty must suffer under such circumstances.
The Argentine reply to the note was no more than formal ; the Chilian reply was more cordial in tone, but equally unob-
THEfBRAZILIANiGREEN BOOK 7
jective. It was clear that the Governments of neither of these two countries felt themselves obliged to adopt any particular attitude of continental soUdarity. The suggestion at this time of an American Congress of Neutrals, which rapidly threatened to become an Hispano-American Congress seemed directly hostile to such a formula. The effect, on the other hand, on such nations as BoUvia, Ecuador, and Peru was not negUgible. The general result of the Brazilian attitude is to be looked for in the future as a precedent, rather than in the present. The revocation of BraziUan neutrahty with regard to the AlHed Powers was no more than the natural and necessary sequence of the above measure.
The BraziUan Government, whose action throughout has been extremely logical, having taken definite reprisals for each outrage committed by the German Government, was content to leave matters as they stood, employing no hostile activities towards Germany. But on October 25 the BraziUan steamer Macau was torpedoed and its captain taken prisoner ; this last could only be interpreted as an act of war, and the President in a Message to Congress (October 25) advised the recognition of this state of war initiated by Germany against Brazil. This was decreed October 26. The notification of a state of war gave another opportunity to the South American Republics for the discussion of continental solidarity. Argentina, on this occasion, after three months' delay, replied (February i, 1918) in a note which tacitly admitted the justice of Brazil's position ; the ChiUan Minister in Brazil sent (October 30) a note as cordial as that one in which the ChiUan Government repUed to the Uruguayan notification of her attitude, but on December 3 Chile declared her neutrality in the war between Brazil and Germany.
The sinking of two more Brazilian ships was followed by measures of reprisal against enemy commerce and the with- drawal of colonization concessions.
Desirous of making her adhesion to the AlUed cause something more than a Platonic manifestation, the Brazilian Government offered to co-operate in patroUing the seas, an offer which was willingly accepted. Aviation and Medical Missions have been despatched to the AlUed countries.
The final document is the BraziUan reply to the Pope's Peace Note — a statement which ranks second to none as a dignified justification of a nation's position.
The whole series of documents gives the impression of a nation anxious to maintain good relations with the Powers of
8 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
the world, but with a full regard for its national honour and the peculiar duties of its position. Without abandoning its traditional policy, it endeavours to find a modus operandi at every encounter with the illegal methods of Germany ; once the intentions of that Power become plain, Brazil boldly faces the situation and proceeds dispassionately, under its own legislation, and with due regard for international agreements, to take the necessary reprisals for the protection of its interests and for the removal of the menace to the world's peace. Throughout this it sets an eminent example of correct procedure in international relations.
ANDREW BOYLE. July 24, 1 91 8.
NOTE. Any Editorial Note or explanation is enclosed in brackets [ ]
CONTENTS
PAGE
Introduction 5
Decrees of Neutrality Now Revoked ii
nptifi cation of the unrestricted blockade i4
Rupture of Diplomatic Relations between the Governments OF the United States of America and Germany 21
Torpedoing of the Steamer " Parana " 23
Rupture of Diplomatic and Commercial Relations between Brazil and Germany and the Consequent Measures... ... 27
Protection of Brazilian Interests in Germany 32
Protection of German Interests in Brazil 33
Protection of Brazilian Interests in the Part of Belgium Occupied by the Forces of the German Empire* 36
State of War Existing between the United States of America and the Imperial German Government 37
Ministry for Foreign Affairs 39
Revocation of Brazil's Neutrality in Favour of the United States of America 39
Torpedoing of another Brazilian Ship 41
Utilization of German Merchant Ships Anchored in Brazilian Harbours 41
Telegraphic Messages Exchanged between the Presidents of THE United States of America and Brazil 45
Germany's Protest against Brazil's Utilization of her Merchant Ships , 46
Circular Note to the Foreign Governments 48
Reply of the Foreign Governments to the Foregoing Circular Note 50
10 CONTENTS
PAGE
Revocation of Neutrality in the War of Germany against THE Powers of Europe and Japan 74
Request for Information with Regard to the Patrols of the Naval Forces Operating against Germany 75
Treatment of Brazilians in Germany * ... 76
Policy of American Fraternity 78
Rupture of Diplomatic Relations between the Republic of Costa Rica and the German Empire 80
Rupture of Diplomatic Relations between the Republic of Peru and the German Empire 81
Rupture of Diplomatic Relations between the Oriental Republic of Uruguay and the German Empire 84
State of War between Brazil and Germany 87
Correspondence with Reference to the Declaration of a State of War between Brazil and the German Empire ... 89
Two More Ships Torpedoed 97
Allied Conference at Paris on November 30, 1917 102
Measures of Precaution with Respect to German Subjects who Exercise Consular Functions in Brazil on Behalf of Other Nations 103
Neutrality of the Republic of Chile in the War between Brazil and Germany 104
Rupture of Diplomatic Relations between the Republic of Ecuador and the German Empire 106
The Annulling of the Brazilian Exequatur of all Foreign Consuls of German Nationality 107
The Practical Expression of Brazil's Co-operation in the War of the Allied Powers against Germany 108
Reply of the Argentine Government to the Communication of A State of War between Brazil and Germany 113
Admission of Students from the other American Republics to the Military and Naval Colleges and Academies of Brazil 114
Permanent International Economic Committee at Paris 115
Peace Proposal of His Holiness Pope Benedict XV 117
Index of Names 123
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
DECREES OF NEUTRALITY NOW REVOKED
DECREE NO. 11,038 OF AUGUST 4, 1914.
Orders that complete neutrality shall be observed in the war of the German Empire against the French Republic and the Russian Empire.
The President of the Republic of the United States of Brazil :
The Federal Government having received official notification from the Government of the German Empire that it is in a state of war with the French Republic and the Russian Empire : Resolves that the laws of neutrality appearing in the circular issued with Decree No. 11,0371 of the 4th of the present month and year, shall be faithfully and rigorously observed and ful- filled by the Brazilian authorities, while the said state of war lasts.
Rio de Janeiro, August 4, 1914. 93rd of Independence and 26th of the RepubUc.
Hermes R. da Fonseca.
Frederico Affonso de Carvalho.
P This Decree, according to the President's Message, May 22, 191 7, see post, p. 40, embodies the precepts of the two conventions signed by Brazil at the Hague with reference to the rights and duties of Neutral Powers a^ad Persons.]
11
12 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
DECREE NO. 11,066 OF AUGUST 12, 1914.
Orders that complete neutrality shall be observed in the war between Great Britain and Germany.
The President of the RepubUc of the United States of Brazil :
The Federal Government having received official notification from the British Government that Great Britain is in a state of war with Germany :
Resolves that the laws of neutraUty appearing in the circular issued with Decree No. 11,037 '^^ t^^ 4*^ of the present month and year, shall be faithfully and rigorously observed and ful- filled by the Brazilian authorities, while the said state of war lasts. «
Rio de Janeiro, August 12, 1914. 93rd of Independence and 26th of the RepubHc.
Hermes R. da Fonseca. Lauro Miiller.
DECREE NO. 11,092 OF AUGUST 24, 1914.
Orders that complete neutrality shall be observed in the war between the Empires of Japan and Germany.
The President of the RepubHc of the United States of Brazil :
The Federal Government having received official notification from the Government of Japan that the same Empire is in a state of war with that of Germany :
Resolves that the laws of neutrality appearing in the circular issued with Decree No 11,037 o^ the 4th of the present month and year, shall be faithfully and rigorously observed and ful- filled by the Brazilian authorities, while the said state of war lasts.
Rio de Janeiro, August 24, 1914. 93rd of Independence and 26th of the Republic.
Hermes R. da Fonseca. Lauro Miiller.
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 13
DECREE NO. 11,984 OF MARCH 10, 1916.
Orders that complete neutrality shall be observed in the war between Portugal and Germany.
The President of the Republic of the United States of Brazil ;
The Federal Government having received official notification from the Portuguese Government, that Portugal is in a state of war with Germany :
Resolves that the laws of neutrality appearing in the Decrees Nos. 11,037, ii»093» of August 4 and 24, 11,141 of September 9, and ii,209A of October 14 of the year 1914, and the other measures taken by the Federal Government, shall be faithfully and rigorously observed and fulfilled by the Brazilian authorities, while the said state of war lasts.
Rio de Janeiro, March 10, 1916. 95th of Independence and 28th of the Republic.
Wenceslau Braz P. Gomes. Gastao da Cunha,
DECREE NO. 12,171 OF AUGUST 29, 1916.
Orders that complete neutrality shall be observed in the war between Italy and Germany.
The President of the RepubUc of the United States of Brazil :
The Federal Government having received official notification from the Italian Government that Italy is in a state of war with Germany :
Resolves that the laws of neutrality appearing in the Decrees Nos. 11,037, 11,093, of August 4 and 24, 11,141 of September, and ii,209A of October 14 of the year 1914, and the other measures taken by the Federal Government, shall be faithfully and rigorously observed and fulfilled by the Brazilian authorities, while the said state of war lasts.
Rio de Janeiro, August 29, 1916. 95th of Independence and 28th of the RepubUc.
Wenceslau Braz P. Gomes. L, M. de Souza Dantas.
14 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
NOTinCATION OF THE UNRESTRICTED BLOCKADE
NOTE FROM THE GERMAN GOVERNMENT TO THE BRAZILIAN LEGATION IN BERLIN
(Translation.)
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Berlin,
January 31, 191 7.
Monsieur le Ministre,
In the note of December 12, 1916, Germany and her Allies declared themselves ready to enter into peace negotiations with their enemies, indicating as the basis for these negotiations the security of the existence, of the honour and of the free development of their peoples.
Their plans were not aimed, as they had expressly declared, at the destruction or extermination of their enemies, and were, according to their own conviction, quite compatible with the rights of other nations.
With regard to Belgium, the Chancellor had declared, some weeks before, that Germany had never intended to annex that country.
In the peace to be concluded with Belgium, Germany had no other object than to prevent that country, with which she desired to live in good neighbourly relations, from being ex- ploited by her enemies to help them in hostile designs.
Such a precaution is the more to be regarded since the rulers of the enemy peoples have undisguisedly expressed, in their repeated speeches and, in particular, in the resolutions taken by them in the Paris Economic Conference, their intention to refuse Germany, even after the restoration of peace, any right of equaUty, but, on the contrary, to continue the struggle systematically.
The peace attempt of the four Allied Powers broke down before the thirst for conquest of their enemies, who wished to impose peace. Under the cloak of the principle of nationalities, they concealed their war aim — ^the crushing and humiliation of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, and Bulgaria.
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 15
To the desire for conciliation they oppose their intention of annihilation. They desire war to the utmost.
Thus a new state of affairs has arisen, which leads Germany to adopt new resolutions. For two years and a half England has made iUicit use of her naval power with the criminal object of conquering Germany by hunger. Through its brutal dis- regard for the Rights of Nations, the group of Powers led by England not only suppress the legitimate trade of their enemies ; but by exercising over them an unlimited pressure, it forces even Neutral States to abandon all trafi&c which does not suit it, or to restrict their commerce according to its arbitrary pre- scriptions. The efforts employed to induce England and her Allies to return to a respect for the Rights of Nations and the freedom of the seas are known by the Brazilian Government.
In spite of this, the EngUsh Government persists in its war of starvation, which, without reaching the military force of the enemy, forces women and children, the sick and aged to suffer, for their country, privations grievous in themselves, and fatal to the vitality of the Nation.
Thus the English ambition for hegemony cold-bloodedly unchains misfortunes on the world, with a disregard for the most sacred laws of humanity, with a disregard for the protests of neutrals severely affected, with a disregard even for the silent desire for peace among the peoples of the Allies of Great Britain. Every day in which the terrible struggle is prolonged brings new devastations, new miseries, new losses of human life. Every day which shortens the war will save for both sides the Ufe of thousands of soldiers and will contribute to the benefit of tortured humanity.
The Imperial Government would not be able to assume the responsibiUty before its own conscience, before the German people, and before history of not using all means to hasten the end of the war. It had the desire and hope to reach this by means of negotiations. The enemies having replied to the attempt to enter into this path by a declaration of an intensi- fication of the struggle, the Imperial Government, in order to serve humanity in its highest sense, and in order not to incur a heavy fault iijjtjie eyes of its own people, must make use of all weapons, so as to continue the struggle to which it was forced to defend its existence. It finds itself, therefore, forced to abandon the restrictions which it maintained hitherto in the use of weapons at sea.
In the certain faith that the people and Government of Brazil will accept the reasons for this decision and the necessity
16 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
which dictates it, the Imperial Government hopes that Brazil will judge the new state of affairs from the height of her impartiality, and that she will contribute also, for her part, to prevent greater misery and avoidable sacrifices of human Hfe.
With reference to the details of the naval measures projected, as appear in the attached Memorandum, the German Govern- ment ventures to express the hope that the BraziUan Government will see its way to warn BraziHan ships of the danger they incur when entering the barred zones, described in the attached annexe, as well as to instruct its subjects against trusting passengers or goods to ships which trade with harbours in those zones.
I avail myself of this opportunity to renew to Your Excellency, Monsieur le Ministre, the assurance of my highest consideration.
Zimmertnann,
Monsieur Gurgel do Amaral. Minister ol Brazil.
Memorandum annexed to the Note sent by the German Chancery on January 31 to the Brazilian Legation IN Berlin.
(Translation.)
From February i, 1917, all sea traffic in the barred zones around Great Britain, France, and Italy, and in the eastern part of the Mediterranean as described below, will be combated by all armed means, without any restriction.
(a) To the North — a zone around England and France delimited by a line drawn at a distance of 20 sea leagues * along the Dutch coast to the Terschelling lightship ; continuing from the Terschelling lightship meridian to Udsire ; continuing thence to the point at 62 degrees latitude North and o degrees longitude, and thence to 62 degrees of latitude South,* and 5 degrees of longitude West ; following a direction thence to a point situated at a distance of 3 sea leagues to the South of the meridian of the Faroer [sic] Islands, in a direction to the
[* Thus in the Brazilian version throughout : other versions, including the German text, have " sea miles."]
* On other occasions North, according to one ol the charts enclosed with this Memorandum*
TBE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 17
point situated 62 degrees of latitude North and 10 degrees longitude West ; ' thence to 57 degrees latitude North and 20 degrees longitude West ; then to 47 degrees of latitude North and 20 degrees of longitude West ; thence to 43 degrees of latitude North and 15 degrees of longitude West ; continuing along the parallel 43 degrees of latitude North, to a point situated at a distance of 20 sea leagues from Cape Finisterre ; and thence along the northern coast of Spain at a distance of 20 sea leagues, to the French frontier.
(b) To the South — the Mediterranean. To neutral shipping the sea area will remain open from west of a line from ^Point de I'Espiquette to 38 degrees 20 minutes North and 6 degrees East, as well as to the North and West of a strip 60 sea leagues wide, along the coast of North Africa, beginning from 2 degrees longitude W>st.
To allow communication between this zone and Greece, there will be a strip, 20 sea leagues wide, either to the North or the East of the following line :
38 degrees of latitude North and 5 degrees of longitude East to 38 degrees of latitude North and 10 degrees of longitude East ; thence drawn down to 37 degrees North and 11 degrees 30 minutes East ; continuing in a straight line to 34 degrees North and 11 degrees 30 minutes East ; thence in a straight line to 34 degrees North and 22 degrees and 30 minutes East. From this point on, the said strip leads into Greek territorial waters from the West of 22 degrees and 30 minutes longitude East.
Neutral ships which navigate the barred zones will do so at their own risk. In spite of the precautions taken to safeguard, during a reasonable period, those neutral vessels which are on February i en route for ports situated in the barred zone, it would be advisable to warn them, urgently and by all possible means, to change their route.
Neutral vessels l5^ng in harbours in the barred zones can with all safety leave the zones provided they put out to sea before February 5 and take the shortest route for the free zone.
Two copies are enclosed of the charts on which are marked the barred zones.
' According to the chart mentioned above, the line is drawn from this point (62 degrees lat. N. ; 10 degrees long. W.) to an intermediate point (61 degrees lat. N. ; 15 degrees long. W.), thence to the point mentioned in the Memorandum (57 degrees lat. N. ; 20 degrees Icng. W.).
18 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
REPLY OF THE BRAZILIAN GOVERNMENT THROUGH ITS LEGATION IN BERLIN
Legation of the United States of Brazil, Berlin,
February 9, 1917.
Monsieur le Ministre,
I immediately transmitted to my Government, by telegraph, the note of January 31, in which Your Excellency communicated to me the intention of the Imperial German Government to blockade the coasts of Great Britain and her islands, the coasts of France and Italy and the eastern Mediter- ranean by means of submarines, which, from the ist of February of the present year, would prevent all sea traffic in those areas, the restrictions hitherto observed in the employment of means of sea warfare being suspended, and all means allowed for the destruction of vessels.
The note adds that the German Government, confident of the just opinion which Brazil will form of these war measures^ which present circumstances force it to take, hopes that Bra- zilian ships will be warned of the danger they in entering the barred zones as also the passengers and merchandise on any other merchant vessels, neutral or otherwise.
I have just received instructions to inform Your Excellency that the Federal Government feels the greatest anxiety that the position of exemption which the careful observance of the laws of neutrality, established by it from the outbreak of hostilities between friendly nations, has won for it, should not suffer modification until the end of the present war. In this way it has always acted, reserving to itself, as it should, the right to demand reparation in concrete cases which affected Brazilian interests, as it has always done.
The unexpected information, now received, of an extensive blockade of the countries with which Brazil has active economic relations and with which she is in uninterrupted communi- cation through ships, among which are Brazilian ones, has produced the most justified and profound impression through the imminent menace of unjust sacrifice of lives, destruction of property and the complete disturbance of commercial transactions.
Under such circumstances, and following invariably its original design, the Brazilian Government, having examined the contents of the German note, declares on this occasion that it cannot accept as effective the blockade now suddenly estabUshed by
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK Id
the Imperial German Government, for, both on account of the means employed to realize this blockade and the dispro- portionate extension of the barred zones, as well as on account of the absence of any restrictions, including the warning before- hand, even to neutral ships, and of the announcement of destruction by armed means of any kind, such a blockade would not be legal or effective, and would be opposed to the principles of right and the conditions estabUshed by convention for military operations of this nature.
Consequently the Brazilian Government, in spite of its sincere and anxious desire to avoid disagreements with the friendly nations now at war, feels that it is its duty to protest against this blockade, as in fact it does protest, and therefore it leaves to the Imperial German Government the responsibility for all events which may happen to BraziUan citizens, merchandise, or ships as a result of the abandonment of the principles recog- nized by International Law, or by conventions to which Brazil and Germany are parties.
I have the honour to renew to Your Excellency, Monsieur le Secretaire d'Etat, the assurance of my highest consideration.
5. Gut gel do Amaral, His Excellency, Monsieur A. Zimmerman,
Secretary ol State for Foreign Affairs of the Imperial German Government.
NOTE FROM THE MINISTRY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS TO THE LEGATION OF THE GERMAN EMPIRE
Ministry for Foreign Affairs. No. 4. Rio de Janeiro.
February g, 191 7.
Monsieur le Ministre,
I have the honour to hand Your Excellency, at the same time as it is delivered in BerUn to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the enclosed copy of the note by which the Brazilian Government repUed to that of the Imperial German Government, with reference to the blockade, established since February 21, for the unrestricted attack by all armed means of destruction on vessels which sail in the barred zones.
I avail myself of the opportunity to renew to Your Excellency the assurance of my high consideration.
Lauro Miiller. His Excellency, Dr. A. Pauli,
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of His Majesty the German Emperor and King ol Prussia.
20 fEE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
REPLY OF THE LEGATION OF THE GERMAN EMPIRE TO THE MINISTRY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS.
{Translation.)
Imperial German Legation. J.N. 302.
Petropolis, February 10, 191 ?•
Monsieur le Ministre,
I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of Your Excellency's kind note dated the 9th instant, with which you forwarded me a copy of the Brazilian Government's note in reply to that one which the German Government sent it, with reference to the blockade established, since the first day of the present month, around the countries with which Germany is at war.
Thanking you for sending me the said copy, I avail myself of the opportunity to renew to Your Excellency the assurance of my high consideration.
A, Pauli. His EMuUency, Th$ Minister for Foreign Affairs,
Dr. Lauro Muller, Rio de Janeiro.
TELEGRAM FROM THE MINISTRY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS TO THE LEGATION IN BERLIN
(Despatched February 13, 1917.)
Brazilian Legation, The Hague.
Please send to the Minister Amaral :
" We consider it essential, for the maintenance of our diplo- matic relations with your ^ Government, that no BraziUan ship should be attacked on any sea and on any pretext, even that of carrying contraband of war, as the belHgerent Nations have arbitrarily included everything in that category."
Foreign Minister.
\} I.e. the Government to which you are accredited. This telegram repHes to a Note from the German Government. See post^ p. 28.]
TEE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 21
RUPTURE OF DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS BETWEEN THE GOVERNMENTS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND GERMANY
NOTE FROM THE AMERICAN EMBASSY TO THE BRAZILIAN GOVERNMENT
{Translation.)
Embassy of the United States of America. No. 339.
Rio de Janeiro.
February 5, 191 7.
Monsieur le Ministre,
In accordance with telegraphic instructions received from my Government, yesterday evening, I have the honour to inform the Brazihan Government, through Your Excellency, that the Government of the United States of America, in view of the recent declaration of the German Government of its intention to renew indiscriminately submarine warfare, has no other alternative than to follow the line of conduct set forth in its note of April 18, 1916, to the German Government. My Government, therefore, will recall the American Ambassador in Berlin and his staff, and will immediately hand to the German Ambassador in Washington passports for himself and his staff.
I have also received instructions to add that the President of the United States of America is reluctant to believe that Germany will actually put into practice her threats to neutral commerce ; but, if this happen, the President of the United States will ask Congress for authority to use the forces of the nation to protect American citizens who peacefully and by right travel on the high seas. The course followed is, in the President's opinion, in perfect agreement with the principles enunciated by him in his Message to the Senate on January 12, and, conse- quently, he believes that it will make for the peace of the world, if the other neutral Powers find it possible to assume the sanie attitude as that taken by the Government of the United States of America.
I avail myself of the opportunity to have the honour to reiterate to Your Excellency, Monsieur le Ministre, the assurance of my highest and most distinguished consideration.
Alexander Benson,
Charge d'Affaires. His Excellency, Dr. Lauro S. MUlUr,
Minister for Foreign Affairs, etc., etc, etc., Rio de Janeirp.
22 TEE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
REPLY OF THE BRAZILIAN GOVERNMENT TO THE NOTE OF THE AMERICAN EMBASSY
Directorate-General op Political and Diplomatic Affairs. Section of American Affairs. No. 3.
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Rio de Janeiro,
February S, 191 7.
Monsieur le Charge d'affaires,
I have before me your note, No. 339, of the 5th instant, in which you, according to instructions received, inform me that the Government of the United States of America has broken off diplomatic relations with the German Government, recalling, on that account, its Ambassador in Berlin and handing his passports to the Ambassador of that country in Washington. This decision was brought about by the declaration of the German Government that it was about to renew unrestricted submarine warfare.
The same communication adds that if this threat 'be realized, the President of the United States of America will obtain the necessary legislative authorizations to use the forces of the nation in order to protect American citizens who travel on the high seas, hoping that the neutral Powers will assume a similar attitude with the object of making for the peace of the world.
In thanking you for this communication, I must, in my turn, confirm in the present letter the verbal statement which I made to you that the Brazilian Government, in reply to the note which it received from the German Government, announ- cing the blockade of the coasts of the enemy countries, declared that it did not recognize, for a number of reasons, such a blockade as effective, and that it protested against it and its consequences.
With this basis of understanding, the Brazilian Government will leave to the German Government the responsibility for any events which may happen to Brazilian citizens, merchandise, or ships as a result of the abandonment of the principles recog- nized by International Law or by the Conventions to which Brazil and Germany are parties.
I have the honour to renew to you the assurance of my very distinguished consideration.
Lauro Miiller. M. Alexander Benson,
Charg6 d'Affaires of the United States of America.
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 23
TORPEDOING OF THE STEAMER "PARANA"
TELEGRAM FROM THE LEGATION IN PARIS TO THE MINISTRY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS
{Received April 5, 1917.)
Foreign Affairs, Rio. Received telegram Consul Havre saying : Parana torpedoed last night 10 miles from Barfleur. Crew saved. Three men killed.
Olyntho de Magalhaes.
NOTE VERBALE FROM THE GERMAN GOVERNMENT TO THE BRAZILIAN LEGATION IN BERLIN.
{Received at 11 p.m. April 7, 1917.)
(Translation.) J.N. 7826.
With reference to the interview which M. Amaral had to-day with Herr Zimmermann, the Imperial Department of Foreign Affairs has the honour to bring to the notice of the Legation of the United States of Brazil the following statement :
Up to the present, the Imperial Admiralty has not received any news as to the loss of the Brazilian steaner Parana, so that it cannot decide whether this was caused by a mine or a torpedo. However that may be, the Imperial Government does not hesitate to offer the Brazilian Government even now the expression of its most lively regret if the event should prove that this unfortunate disaster should have been caused by a unit of the Imperial Navy. At the same time, it hopes there has been no loss of life.
The Imperial Department would be glad if the Legation of the United States of Brazil would see fit to act as interpreter by telegraph, of the sentiments of the Imperial Government^ to the Brazilian Government.
Berlin, April 7, 19 17,
24 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
TELEGRAM FROM THE BRAZILIAN LEGATION IN PARIS TO THE MINISTRY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS
(Received April lo, 1917.)
Foreign Affairs, Rio.
Urgent. I transmit summary following text evidence captain, officers, crew Parana taken Cherbourg before Secretary of Legation Clark, consul, and vice-consul there, on April 8, with regard to the torpedoing occurred 10 miles from Barfleur 3rd day at 11.30 p.m.
Captain Parana, Jose da Silva Peixe, examined in the first place, replied as follows questions drawn up Secretary Legation Clark, delegate Minister Brazil in Paris to open said inquiry.
First. Under what circumstances did the loss of the Parana take place ?
Reply : The vessel was sailing under my command at slow speed in the latitude mentioned above with all lights required by regulations showing, as well as the illuminated word Brazil showing in a place easily seen over the engine room amidships, the national ensign and the company's flag hoisted, when at the time mentioned above I was awakened (I had left the watch to the chief officer an hour before) by a great noise caused by explosion. The chief officer then informed me that the ship had been torpedoed.
I noticed immediately that all the engines had ceased to work, and that the ship in complete darkness was heeling over to starboard.
I ordered the second engineer to examine the engine room : he returned and stated that it was completely flooded.
Of the four ship's boats one was blown up, as well as the lower deck, the davits, and the cabin of the second engineer ; he was not there at the time.
The crew embarked in the three remaining ship's boats, except three who did not answer the roll call, and the firemen who were sleeping, and were saved later through the air funnels of the boiler house, and who said that the boilers on the port side had been torn out by the explosion.
Seeing that the ship still carried crew, I gave orders not to cast off the boats in case they should be drowned, in spite of a cry begging me to cast o^ and the ship being almost submerged.
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 25
I cast off the last boat myself, asking if there were still crew on board — negative answer. I stepped off, certain that I was the last to leave the boat ; heard cries later, and picked up two firemen who had jumped into the sea.
Second : Was the loss of the vessel caused by the explosion torpedo fired by submarine ?
I reply in the affirmative for the following reasons : When my boat pulled away from the ship, while still within range of vision, I made out a red light, close to the ship, which shortly went out and another white one appeared.
As I had fired a rocket and another boat several flashlights, I thought it must be a ship coming to my assistance, and was getting ready to put back to the boat when I heard distinctly the report of five gunshots directed at it ; I saw the flash caused by each of these shots, which showed the premeditated desire to do us all possible damage.
I concluded that the same vessel had fired the torpedo. Alarmed at the aggressive attitude of the ship, I determined not to ask assistance of it, and made off quickly.
Half an hour later the Parana sank.
Third : In the event of an affirmative answer to question No. 2, was there any warning beforehand from the submarine ?
There was absolutely no warning beforehand, nor a statement of any kind from the submarine.
Fourth : In the event of a negative answer to question No. 3, was any submarine seen in the latitude where the explosion took place ?
This question is answered in part by answer No. 2.
Several of the crew in boat No. 4, in charge of the chief officer, saw distinctly the outline of a submarine on the star- board side of the Parana, which was the side which received the five gunshots.
This fact proves that the submarine, after torpedoing the ship, crossed its bows and fired its guns on the starboard side.
Fifth : Did the submarine give any assistance in saving the crew ?
Reply : The submarine did not give, nor attempted to give, any assistance in saving us.
Sixth : Did any vessel appear on the port side to help the crew ?
Reply : Exactly on the port side, no.
After twelve hours of suffering, the wind west by north-west and a heavy sea, I saw on the same side two French torpedo boats, which rescued us an4 boat No. 3 and took us to Cherbourg.
26 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
I feel it my duty to testify to the friendly reception of the sailors of the French torpedo boats.
I regret to have to report the sad loss of three good shipmates, Machado Soares, Clorindo Santos, and Jos6 Marinho Falcao.
(Signed) Jose da Silva Peixe, ,
Captain of the Parand.
The chief officer of the Parand, Luiz Ontiveros, was then examined, who confirmed the preceding deposition, and gave the following details as to the events :
In boat No. 4, of which he had charge, all his crew stated that they could perfectly distinguish the outhne of a submarine : he himself noticed a shape which looked like that of a submarine, and he saw a red fight which certainly was the same as that seen by Captain Peixe.
He added that his boat. No. 4, was rescued by an Engfish cargo vessel, the Ratleyehead [sic].
Other undersigned officers of the ship were examined, and confirmed in everything the preceding deposition.
The boatswain, Fernando Rodriguez Sacramento, seaman Antonio Cruz Aran jo, fireman Francisco Oliveira, and several other seamen, who agreed w4th the above, and declared they had seen distinctly the outline of a submarine, as is stated in the deposition of the chief officer, and all were of the opinion that it would be wiser not to ask for assistance fearing they might be attacked again.
Cherbourg, 8th of April, 1917. (Signed) Frederico Castello Branco Clark, Secretary of Legation — ^instructed by the Minister in Paris to open the inquiry. Jose da Silva Peixe, Master of the Parand. Luiz Ontiveros, Chief Officer. Jose Santos Costa, First Pilot. Demosthenes Dardean, Second Pilot. Oscar Sperb, Chief Engineer. Luiz Gonzaga Gon^alves, Second Engineer. Fernando Rodriquez Sacramento, Boatswain. Antonio Costa Araujo, Seaman.
Here follow the signatures Armand Postel and A. HameUn, Brazifian Consul and Vice-Consul respectively at Cherbourg.
Here follow the signatures in their own hand of the firemen, Joao Manoel Faria and Francisco Jose Araujo, and the marks on the following, who are unable to write, Antonio Ribeiro, Manoel Cunha, and fireman Tertuliano Fagundes. After each of these marks is the testimony signed by Secretary Clark, Captain Peixe, Chief Engineer Oscar Sperb, thi^t it is the mark of the person mentioned.
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 27
In the margin in French, and signed by the Brazilian Consul in Cherbourg, Armand Post el, is a similar testimony with regard to the marks. Of the signatories, nine are Brazilian by birth, and five naturalized ; no difference of opinion exists between the crew as to the statements in the deposition.
Olyntho de Magalhaes.
RUPTURE OF DIPLOMATIC AND COMMERCIAL RELA- TIONS BETWEEN BRAZIL AND GERMANY AND THE CONSEQUENT MEASURES
NOTE FROM THE MINISTRY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS TO THE IMPERIAL GERMAN LEGATION
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Rio de Janeiro.
April II, 1917.
Monsieur le Ministre,
The Brazilian Government, drawing attention to the menace to its legitimate and vital interests, protested formally, at the proper time, against the blockade which, on January 31 of the present year, was notified to it by Your Excellency's Government.
The Brazihan Legation in Berlin, when presenting this protest, the safeguard of her threatened rights and the line of her future conduct, wrote actually in the note to the Imperial Government :
" The unexpected information now received, of an extensive blockade of the countries, with which Brazil has active economic relations, and with which she is in uninterrupted commmiication through ships, among which are Brazihan ones, has produced the most justified and profound impression through the immi- nent menace of unjust sacrifice of lives, destruction of property, and the complete disturbance of commercial transactions."
The note continued : *' Following invariably its original design, the Brazilian Government, having examined the con- tents of the German note, declares, on this occasion, that it cannot accept as effective the blockade now suddenly estab- lished by the Imperial German Government, for, both on
28 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
account of the means employed to realize this blockade and the disproportionate extension of the barred zones, as well as on account of the absence of any restrictions, including the warning beforehand even to neutral ships, and of the announce- ment of destruction by armed means of any kind, such a blockade w^ould not be legal or effective, and would be opposed to the principles of right and the conditions established by convention for military operations of this nature.
** Consequently the Brazihan Government, in spite of its sincere and anxious desire to avoid disagreements with the friendly nations now at war, feels that it is its duty to protest against this blockade, as in fact it does protest, and, therefore, it leaves to the Imperial German Government the responsi- bihty for all events which may happen to Brazilian citizens, merchandise, or ships as a result of the abandonment of the principles recognized by International Law, or by conventions to which Brazil and Germany are parties."
Before any reply was received by the neutral Governments which protested, Brazil received a communication expressing the regret with which the Imperial Government was forced to that extreme measure, and stating that, with the desire of not injuring the various interests of neutrals, it would be ready at once to discuss and arrange, in the widest interpretation of equity, each and every accident which might unfortunately take place.
As the subject could not admit equitable arrangements, dealing as it did with measures contrary to the general laws of sea warfare, the Brazilian Government instructed its Legation in Berlin, by telegram, of which Your Excellency was informed here, that it considered it essential for the maintenance of its relations with Germany that no Brazilian ship should be attacked on any sea under any pretext, even that of carrying contraband of war, as the belligerent nations had arbitrarily included everything in this category.
In assuming this attitude, the Federal Government confined itself to demanding the fulfilment of the principles of law and the stipulations which the German Government itself acknow- ledged and confirmed, at the Declaration of Paris in 1856, in its own legislation in force, in the Declaration of London of 1909, in which it was expressly stated that the rules included therein corresponded in substance with the principles generally recognized by International Law.
This point of view, which meets with the most soUd support among the German authorities on International Law who hg,ve
TUB BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 29
been universally recognized, such as Heffter, Bluntschli, Holtzen- dorff, and von Listz, and the Brazilian authorities, such as Lafayette, Clovis Bevilaqua, Oliveira Freitas, and many others, to quote authorities from our two countries alone, may be summarized in the following terms :
I. Neutrals need not respect a blockade which is not effective, that is, which is not maintained by a force sufficient to prevent completely access to the enemy coast.
II. A ship which attempts to run an effective blockade is liable to capture, but not destruction.
III. When even an exceptional case of necessity may authorize the destruction of a neutral ship running the blockade, the persons on board must be looked after.
This point of view being established, national opinion, with the complete information before it, entirely approved, as ex- pressed in its authorized organs, the prudent but firm and deliberate action of the Brazihan Government, when it assumed the attitude expressed in its comnmnications of February 9 and 13 last.
As it recently stated. Your Excellency knows the perfect loyalty with which the Federal Government took the greatest care that the position of exemption, which the careful observ- ance of the laws of neutrahty, estabhshed by it from the outbreak of hostiUties between friendly nations, had won for it, should not suffer modification until the end of the present war.
This procedure enabled it to expect with reason, and to demand with assurance, the most absolute reciprocity in the respect of its sovereign rights.
But it has just learned that, after this procedure, which showed its anxiety to respect the position of exemption which to this moment it has maintained in the great w^ar which devas- tates the world, this reciprocity unfortunately does not meet with any return in the acts for which the German Government has the entire responsibility.
The merchant steamer Parana, sailing on the high seas in the latitude of the Pointe de Barfleur under the Brazihan flag and Brazilian by every title, was torpedoed, with a disregard of all the elementary principles to be observed in such cases, by a German submarine on the night of the 3/4 of the present month, and after being torpedoed was subjected again to five gunshots.
It was not warned to receive a visit of inspection as to its quality as a neutral or to examine the papers relating to the
30 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
nature of its cargo. It was not warned that it would be sunk even if it did not offer resistance.
There was not the least attempt at assistance for the persons on board, and these, even after the torpedoing of the ship, were subjected to gunfire.
To this act, hostile to the friendly relations of Brazil towards Germany, is to be added not only the destruction of valuable material interests, but principally the loss of Brazilian lives, as well as injury to others, which were sacrificed without any previous action and against the expressed orders of the Law of Nations, and with an abandonment of the principles accepted in Conventions and adopted by Germany herself. As regards compensation for these deeds, the Brazihan Government will reach a decision shortly.
The involution of the conditions to which the note of February 9 last from the Brazilian to the German Grovemment referred being verified, and in view of the principles underlying its attitude which was confirmed in the most definite terms by its complementary communication of the 13th of the same month, the incident does not permit, I regret to say, the possibility of explanation or arrangement.
The President of the Republic is sure that he has fulfilled, in the most complete fashion, the undertakings freely assumed by Brazil and his duties towards the German Government in international affairs. He has consequently the greatest regret to find that he is forced, in view of what is happening, to break off diplomatic and commercial relations with Germany.
On this same date the Brazilian Minister in Berlin is author- ized to make this statement to the German Government and to ask for his passports so as to leave the country with all the staff of the Legation in his charge. All the Brazilian Consuls in the German Empire will also be given orders in this sense.
Under these circumstances, the presence of Your Excellency in this country. Monsieur le Ministre, loses its object. I send you enclosed the passport which will enable you to reach your country in safety. For a similar reason the exequaturs of the German Consuls in Brazil will be cancelled.
In fulfilling this regrettable duty, I take this occasion to have the honour to offer Your Excellency once more the assur- ance of my high consideration. ,
Lauro Muller, His Excellency, M. A. Pauli,
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of His Majesty the German Emperor and King of Prussia.
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 31
DECREE NO. 12,441 OF APRIL 11, 1917.
Cancels the exequaturs granted to all the consular officers of the German Empire in Brazil.
The President of the Republic of the United States of Brazil :
Having determined to suspend diplomatic and consular relations with the German Empire ;
Decrees :
That the exequaturs granted to all consular officers of the German Empire in Brazil be cancelled.
Rio de Janeiro, April ii, 1917. 96th of Independence and 29th of the Republic.
Wenceslau Braz p. Gomes. Lauro Miiller.
CIRCULAR TELEGRAM TO THE PRESIDENTS AND GOVERNORS OF THE STATES OF THE UNION
{April 12, 1917.)
I have the honour to bring to Your Excellency's notice that His Excellency, the President of the Republic, has cancelled by a decree of the nth instant the exequaturs granted to all the consular officers of the German Empire in Brazil. Kind regards.
Lauro Miiller.
DECLARATION OF THE BRAZILIAN GOVERNMENT WITH REGARD TO THE PRECAUTIONARY SUPER- VISION OF THE GERMAN SHIPS ANCHORED IN BRAZILIAN HARBOURS
(Diario Official of April 13, 1917.)
The Government, having learned that the crews of German ships have practised acts of destruction on these ships, which are under the police jurisdiction and control of the BraziUan authorities, particularly now that there are no authorities here representing the German Empire, and having learned, more- over, that, contrary to the regulations in force of the Port
32 TBE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
Authorities, the said crews have thrown into the sea portions of the machinery and other things, and even show a disposition to sink some, if not all, of these vessels, a design the realization of which the BraziUan Government could not contemplate without taking measures against it on account of the damage it would do to navigation and the security of the ports, deter- mined, as a measure of precaution and safety against this alarming eventuality, without giving it the character of confis- cation, to order the Ministry of the Navy to mount a guard on the said ships by force for as long as the present situation lasts.
EXONERATION OF BRAZILIAN CONSULAR AGENTS OF GERMAN NATIONALITY
By Acts of April 30, 1917, six officials of German nationality, who held the posts of honorary Consuls of Brazil, were exon- erated without their periods of office having elapsed. They were : Heinrich Holche, of Dusseldorf ; Hermann Meyer, of Leipsig ; Eduard Dettmann, of Francfort s/M. ; Ataliba Florence, of Dresden ; Siegfried Ballin, of Munich ; and Mathias Hechler, of Altona.
PROTECTION OF BRAZILIAN INTERESTS IN GERMANY
TELEGRAM FROM THE MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS TO THE BRAZILIAN LEGATION IN BERNE
{Despatched April 7, 1917.)
Brazilian Legation, Berne.
BraziHan Government only waits for the telegraphic transmission of the result of inquiry to determine its attitude with reference to the torpedoing of the Parana. Please make confidential inquiries as to whether the Government of the Swiss Confederation would do us the honour to assume the care of the archives of our Legation in Berlin and the defence of our interests in the probable event of a rupture of relations between Brazil and Germany. Reply very urgent.
Foreign Minister,
I
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 33
TELEGRAM FROM THE BRAZILIAN LEGATION AT BERNE TO THE MINISTRY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Foreign Minister, Rio de Janeiro,
The Swiss Federal Consul, touched by the notable friendship of Brazil's confidence so well esteemed here, accepts the honourable charge.
Brazilian Minister.
TELEGRAM FROM THE MINISTRY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS TO THE BRAZILIAN LEGATION AT BERNE
The President of the Republic charges me to desire Y'our Excellency to offer the Swiss Federal Council the most cordial thanks on behalf of Brazil and her President for their worthy consent to the request that the Swiss Confederation should represent, the interests of Brazil in Germany.
Foreign Minister,
PROTECTION OF GERMAN INTERESTS IN BRAZIL
NOTE VERBALE FROM THE LEGATION OF AUSTRIA- HUNGARY TO THE BRAZILIAN GOVERNMENT
(Translation.)
Imperial and Royal Legation of Austria-Hungary in Brazil* While waiting for the designation of the Power which will be entrusted with German interests in Brazil, and in accordance with Art. 21 of the Treaty of Commerce concluded between Austria-Hungary and the German Empire on December 6, 1891, M. Pauli has invited the Consuls of his country in Brazil, who are on the point of leaving their posts to embark from Rio de Janeiro, to hand over, provisionally, the protection of German interests to the Austro-Hungarian Consul at their posts, and, in the absence of an Austro-Hungarian Consul at these posts, to the nearest Austro-Hungarian Consul.
It is requested that Their Excellencies, the Presidents and Governors of States may be forwarded by telegraph the neces- sary instructions in this respect. Petropolis, April n, 1917.
3
34 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
Article 21 of the Said Treaty of Commerce.
Each of the contracting Parties will cause its Consuls abroad to give subjects of the other Party, if the first Party is not represented by a Consul in any place, protection and assistance, as in the case of its own subjects, making no additional charges.
CIRCULAR TELEGRAM TO THE PRESIDENTS AND GOVERNORS OF THE STATES OF THE UNION
(April 12, 1917.)
I have the honour to inform Your Excellency that the Lega- tion of Austria-Hungary has informed this Ministry that as the country to be entrusted with German interests in Brazil has not yet been chosen, the German ex-Consuls, in accordance with Article 21 of the Treaty of Commerce concluded between Austria-Hungary and Germany on December 6, 1891, were instructed to hand over provisionally the protection of those interests to the Consul of Austria-Hungary at their posts, or, in the event of there being no Austro-Hungarian representation there, to the nearest Austro-Hungarian Consul. Kind regards.
Lauro Miiller.
MINISTRY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS
NOTICE.
It is made known by the Directorate-General of Economic and Consular Affairs that by virtue of a commtlnication made by the Legation of Austria-Hungary, the protection of German interests in this city is provisionally handed over to the Consul of Austria-Hungary resident here, in accordance with the Treaty of Commerce concluded between that Empire and the German Empire on December 6, 1891.
Diiectorate-General of Economic and Consular Affairs of the Secretariat of State for Foreign Affairs. Rio de Janeiro, April 12, 1917.
The Director-General,
L. L. Fernandes Pinheiro^
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 35
NOTE FROM THE LEGATION OF THE NETHERLANDS TO THE MINISTRY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS
{Translation.)
Royal Legation of the Netherlands. No. 497/12.
Rio de Janeiro,
April 27, 1917.
Monsieur le Ministre,
I have the honour to bring to Your Excellency's notice that, in accordance with orders from the Queen's Government, I assume, as from to-day, the protection of German interests in Brazil.
The archives of the former Imperial German Legation will remain temporarily in the charge of the Archivist Giinther von Falkenreid in his house, 191 Rua Monte Caseros, Petropolis.
I venture to hope, Monsieur le Ministre, that in this addi- tional charge with which I am trusted, I may count on the same support which Your Excellency has been good enough to give me in the discharge of my ordinary mission.
It is with pleasure that I seize this further opportunity to beg Your Excellency, Monsieur le Ministre, to accept the assurance of my very high consideration.
Von Zeppelin Ohermuller.
His Excellency, Genetal Dr, Laufo Mullef, Minister of State for Foreign Afiairs.
NOTE FROM THE MINISTRY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS TO THE LEGATION OF THE NETHERLANDS
Directorate-General op Political and Diplomatic Affairs. Section of Affairs of Europe, Asia, Africa, and Oceania. No. 3.
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Rio de Janeiro.
ApHl 27, 1917. Monsieur le Ministre,
I have just received the note No. ^97/12 of to-day's date, in which Your Excellency informs me, according to in- structions received from your Government, that you assume, as from to-day, the protection of German interests in Brazil. Your Excellency adds that the archives of the German Legation will remain temporarily in the charge of the Arcliivist Giinther von Falkenried, 191 Rua Monte Caseros, Petropolis.
36 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
Thanking you for this information, which I brought at once to the notice of the President of the Republic, it remains for me to inform Your Excellency that the Brazilian Government will have the greatest care in facilitating your mission.
I have the honour to renew to Your Excellency the assurance of my high consideration.
Lauro Milller.
His Excellency, M. Louis Jean Charles von Zeppelin Ohefmiilleft Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Her Majesty the Queen of the Netherlands.
PROTECTION OF BRAZILIAN INTERESTS IN THE PART OF BELGIUM OCCUPIED BY THE FORCES OF THE GERMAN EMPIRE
NOTE FROM THE BRAZILIAN LEGATION IN MADRID TO THE SPANISH GOVERNMENT
Brazilian Legation, Madrid, No. 8/917.
April 29, 191 7.
Monsieur le Mtnistre d'Etat,
In fulfilment of a telegraphic instruction, which I have just received from my Government, I have the honour to bring to Your Excellency's notice, that His Catholic Majesty's Government having consented to accept temporarily the pro- tection of Brazilian interests in the territory of the Belgian Kingdom, occupied by the German Government, the President of the Republic of the United States of Brazil expresses the desire that this charge with which the Government of His Catholic Majesty has honoured the Brazilian Nation, should become permanent.
I make use of this opportunity, Monsieur le Ministre, to reiterate to Your Excellency the assurance of my highest consideration.
Alcihiades Peganha. His Excellency, M. Juan Alvarado,
Minister of State.
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 37
NOTE FROM THE SPANISH GOVERNMENT TO THE BRAZILIAN LEGATION IN MADRID
[Text in Spanish.]
Ministry of State, Madrid. N. 6.
May I, 1914 [Sic lor 1917].
My dear Sir,
I have the honour to inform Your Excellency that in view of the desire which, on behalf of your Government, you have expressed to me in your kind note of 29th April proximo, I have given telegraphic instructions to His Majesty's Minister Plenipotentiary in Brussels that he should assume, permanently, the protection of Brazilian interests in Belgian occupied territory, which charge he had provisionally exercised since the rupture of relations between Brazil and Germany.
I avail myself of the opportunity to reiterate to Your Excel- lency the assurance of my most distinguished consideration.
Juan Alvarado, M. Alcihiades Peganha,
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary oi Brazil.
STATE OF WAR EXISTING BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND THE IMPERIAL GERMAN GOVERNMENT
NOTE FROM THE AMERICAN EMBASSY TO THE BRAZILIAN GOVERNMENT
(Translation,)
Embassy op the United States of America. No. 352
Rio/DE Janeiro,
Apfil 7, 191 7.
Monsieur le Ministre,
Acting according to instructions from my Govern- ment, I have the honour to inform the Government of the United States of Brazil that on April 6, the Congress of the
38 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
United States of America declared, and the President proclaimed, that a state of war existed between the United States of America and the Imperial German Government.
I avail myself of this opportunity to renew to Your Excellency the assurance of my highest and most distinguished consideration.
Alexander Benson,
Charge d'Affaires. His Excellency. Dr. Lauro S. Mullet,
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Rio de Janeiro.
REPLY OF THE BRAZILIAN GOVERNMENT TO THE NOTIFICATION OF THE AMERICAN EMBASSY
Directorate-General of Political and Diplomatic Affairs, Section of American Affairs. No. 9.
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Rio de Janeiro,
April 23, 1917.
Monsieur le Charge d'affaires,
I duly received the note No. 352 of the 7th instant and brought to the knowledge of the President of the Republic the information which you conveyed to me therein that, as from the day before, by a declaration of the American Congress and the sanction of the President, a state of war existed between the United States of America and the Government of the German Empire, following the rupture of diplomatic relations, as was stated in the note, which, under the number 339, you sent me on February 5 last.
It falls to me in reply to inform you, in confirmation of the notification already made by the Brazilian Embassy in Wash- ington, that the Brazilian Government, in defence of the same principles as those proclaimed by the friendly Government of the United States of America, and as a protest against the hindrance of free navigation, detrimental to its vital interests, determined, in accordance with its previous declarations and on account of the torpedoing of the BraziUan steamship Parana, to suspend diplomatic and commercial relations with Germany.
I have the honour to reiterate to you the assurance of my very distinguished consideration.
Lauro Miiller, Monsieur Alexander Benson,
Charge d'Affaires of the United States of America.
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 39
DECREE NO. 12,458 OF APJ^IL 25, 1917.
Orders that the laws contained in Decree No. 11,037 of August 4, 1 914, shall be observed, in the present state of war between the United States of America and the Government of the German Empire.
The President of the Republic of the United States of Brazil :
The Federal Government having received official notification from the American Government that it is in a state of war with the Government of the German Empire :
Resolves that the laws contained in the circular accompanying Decree No. 11,037 ^^ August 4, 1914, shall be observed and fulfilled by the Brazilian authorities, as long as they are not ordered to the contrary, in the present state of war between the United States of America and the Government of the German Empire.
Rio de Janeiro, April 25, 1917. 96th of Independence and 29th of the RepubUc.
Wenceslau Braz p. Gomes. Lauro Muller.
MINISTRY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS
CHANGE IN THE MINISTER HOLDING THIS PORTFOLIO
On May 3 last General Dr. Lauro Muller was removed, at his own request, from the position of Minister for Foreign Affairs, and by a decree of the 5th of the same month Dr. Nilo Peganha was nominated for that post.
REVOCATION OF BRAZIL'S NEUTRALITY IN FAVOUR OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
MESSAGE OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC TO THE NATIONAL CONGRESS
Gentlemen of the National Congress,
In the Message presented by me to the National Congress on the 3rd of the present month, I stated that I had
40 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
issued Decree No. 12,458 of April 25 ultimo, with reference to Brazil's neutrality in respect to the state of war between the United States of America and the Government of the German Empire.
I did this, although diplomatic and commercial relations had been suspended with Germany, following the general rule admitted up to that time in obedience to Decree No. 11,037, of August 4, 1 914, which embodies the precepts of the two conventions signed by Brazil at the Hague, with reference to the rights and duties of Neutral Powers and Persons, but omit- ting to employ in that document the terms used in the previous decrees of that nature, only ordering the authorities to observe and fulfil the laws of neutrality as long as they were not ordered to the contrary.
The Government could go no further than this : but the Brazilian Nation, through its legislative organ, can without warlike intentions, but with determination, adopt the attitude that one of the belHgerents forms an integral part of the American Continent, and that to this beUigerent we are bound by a traditional friendship and by a similarity of poHtical opinion in the defence of the vital interests of America and the prin- ciples accepted by International Law.
This has always been Brazil's line of conduct ; the Repubhc maintains its fidelity to the uninterrupted tradition of its foreign poHcy ; she could not to-day repudiate the ideas which inspired the note of protest of the Empire of Brazil, on May 15, 1866, when a European ^ squadron bombarded a South American city.«
Our point of view even then was that the nations of the continent whose wealth and peoples are scattered along exten- sive and unprotected coasts, require more than do other nations, the upkeep of the precepts of modem civilization which con- stitute their principal and most efficacious protection.
Emphasizing finally that the policy of continental sohdarity is not the policy of this period of Government, nor of this regime, but the traditional policy of the Brazihan Nation, I submit the matter to the judgment of the National Congress, convinced that if any resolution should chance to be adopted, it will con- firm the happy understandhig which should exist between Brazil and the United States.
Wenceslau Braz p. Gomes.
Rio de Janeiro, May 22, 191 7,
«
\} Spanish. « Valparaiso. See post, p. 79.]
TEE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 41
TORPEDOING OF ANOTHER BRAZILIAN SHIP
TELEGRAM FROM THE LEGATION IN PARIS TO THE MINISTRY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS
{Received May 22, 1917.)
Foreign Affairs, Rio.
Ministry Navy here states Brazilian ship Tijuca was torpedoed off Brest, where all the crew were taken safely. At present no further details.
Olyntho de Magalhaes.
TELEGRAM FROM THE LEGATION IN PARIS TO THE MINISTRY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS
{Received May 22, 1917.)
Foreign Affairs, Rio.
Supplementing my 63 inform Tijuca sunk on 20th at 10.40 p.m., five miles SW. of the Pierres Noires, at the entrance to Brest. A vessel with 16 men arrived on 21st at 7 a.m. at Ushant. First officer stated still three vessels at sea. Latest information states crew composed 38 men arrived at Brest, among them two sUghtly wounded. This information was given by the Ministry of Navy here. No information received from the Consul at Brest. I have telegraphed to him asking for news. I shall send a Secretary there to hold the necessary inquiry.
Olyntho de Magalhaes.
UTILIZATION OF GERMAN MERCHANT SHIPS ANCHORED IN BRAZILIAN HARBOURS
MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC TO THE NATIONAL CONGRESS
Gentlemen of the National Congress,
I submit to-day for your information, in authentic copies, the details which I received from the Brazilian Legation
42 TEE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
in Paris with regard to the torpedoing of another ship of the merchant fleet of Brazil by a submarine belonging to the German naval forces.
The whole nation knows the attitude assumed by the Govern- ment when Germany communicated to all neutral peoples the establishment of a blockade, by submarines, of the western, and a part of the southern, coast of Europe, thus restricting the liberty of the seas, and extending indiscriminately to the world outside the conflict the most violent acts of war.
The Brazilian Government then formulated its protest, and when the steamer Parana was torpedoed, broke off diplomatic and commercial relations with Germany.
Now, the torpedoing of another vessel under grave circum- stances, and without warning beforehand, and the menace that from day to day our shipping and commerce abroad will be diminished, force the Government to put into practice such measures of defence as the High Council of the National Congress may devise.
The Government, in bringing the matter to your considera- tion, does not wish to exonerate itself from the responsibility which is its due, or from uttering frankly its opinion. It is its opinion that the utilization of German merchant ships anchored in Brazilian ports, without any notion of confiscation, which is as repugnant to the spirit of our legislation as to the general feeling of the country, is urgently necessary.
The utilization is based upon the principles of the Convention signed at The Hague on October i8, 1907, and is without com- pensation until we can discover whether it is a question of goods of individual property which, even in a state of war, should be respected, as will be done by Brazil, or whether they belong to enterprises which have relations with, or depend upon, the oihcial powers.
In any case, what seems undelayable to the Gk)vemment is that the measures should be taken, both for the public interest and the national dignity.
Wenceslau Braz p. Gomes.
Rio de Janeiro, May 26, 19 1 7.
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 43
DECREE NO. 3,266, OF JUNE 1, 1917:
Declares null Decree No. 12,458 of April 25th of the current year, which establishes Brazil's neutrality in the war of the United States with the German Empire, and gives other measures.
1, the President of the Republic of the United States of Brazil, make known that the National Congress decreed and I sanction the following resolution :
Article i. — Decree No. 12,458 of April 25 of the current year which establishes Brazil's neutrality in the war of the United States with the German Empire, becomes null.
Sole Paragraph. For the execution of this article, the Presi- dent of the Republic is authorized to take the necessary measures, putting into practice the acts following from the cessation of the said neutrality.
Article 2.— The Executive Power is authorized :
1st, to utilize the German merchant ships anchored in the ports of Brazil so as to put into practice the acts that may be necessary in the terms of the Message of May 26 of the current year ;
2nd, to take measures for the defence of our navigation abroad, being enabled to conclude, with the friendly Nations, arrangements which will ensure freedom of commerce of im- portation and exportation, and to revoke, for this end, the decrees of neutrality when it thinks proper.
Article 3. — The Executive Power is authorized to open the credits which may be necessary for the execution of the present law.
Article 4. — All Dispositions to the contrary are revoked.
Rio de Janeiro. June i, 1917. 96th of Independence and 29th of the Republic.
Wenceslau Braz P. Gomes. Nilo Peganha.
Carlos Maximiliano Pereira dos Santos. Joao Pandid Calogeras. Jose Caetano de Faria. Alexandrino Faria de Alencar. Augusto Tavares de Lyra, Jose Rufino Bezerra Cavalcanti.
44 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
DECREE NO. 12,501 OF JUNE 2, 1917:
Orders the utilization of all the German merchant ships anchored in the ports of the RepubUc.
The President of the Republic of the United States of Brazil, making use of the authorization granted to him by No. i of Article 2 of the Legislative Decree No. 3266 of June i of the current year.
Decrees :
Article i. — The Government of Brazil requisitions all the German merchant ships anchored in the ports of the Republic with the object of utiHzing them as the convenience and necessity of navigation and commerce dictates.
Article 2. — Once occupied, in the terms of the Legislative Decree above mentioned, these ships will be considered Brazilian, so that they may hoist at once the national flag.
Article 3. — The Government will take measures that, within the shortest possible time, these vessels will be put in condition to sail and act as transports according to Article i.
Article 4. — All Dispositions to the contrary are revoked.
Rio de Janeiro. June 2, 1917. 96th of Independence and 29th of the Republic.
Wenceslau Braz p. Gomes. Nilo Peganha.
Carlos Maximiliano Pereira dos Santos. Joao Pandid Calogeras. Jose Caetano de Faria. Alexandrino Faria de Alencar. Augusto Tavares de Lyra. Jose Rtifino Bezerra Cavalcanti.
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 45
TELEGRAPHIC MESSAGES EXCHANGED BETWEEN THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND BRAZIL
TELEGRAM FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF BRAZIL. SENT THROUGH THE AMERICAN EMBASSY
{Note of June 5, 1917.)
I must transmit to Your Excellency, in the name of my Government, the sentiments of deep appreciation with which the recent act of the Brazilian Congress with reference to the present struggle for peace and Uberty, was received in the United States.
I am sure that I speak in the name of my fellow-countrymen when I express my warm admiration for this act, and the hope that it is the forerunner of the attitude to be assumed by the rest of the American States. I face the future with the confi- dent hope in their co-operation in a united movement to put down the German menace.
Woodrow Wilson,
TELEGRAM FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF BRAZIL TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. SENT THROUGH OUR EMBASSY IN WASHINGTON
{Sent on June 13, 1917.)
I thank Your Excellency for the memorable words with which you congratulated Brazil, in the name of the People and Govern- ment of the United States, for the frankness of her attitude in this historic moment. Brazil, in taking her place once more at the side of the United States, has remained faithful to her political and diplomatic traditions of continental solidarity, and as in the case of the great American Nation, we are not actuated in this step by hatred or interest, but by a regard for International Law and the defence of principles which, if they
46 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
are in dispute or danger in the Old World, must meet with shelter and support among the free peoples of the two Americas. Brazil has settled all her foreign questions, she has no ambitions in the present instance and has not suffered in the past, and prizes as a great boon the friendship of the United States. More than any external manifestations, no occasion could so unite the hearts of Brazil and the United States as the present period of uncertainty and struggles.
Wenceslau Braz.
GERMANY'S PROTEST AGAINST BRAZIL'S UTIUZATION OF HER MERCHANT SHIPS
NOTE FROM THE NETHERLANDS LEGATION TO THE MINISTRY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS
(Translation.)
Royal Netherlands Legation, Rio de Janeiro,
June 2, 1917.
Monsieur le Ministre d'Etat,
By means of a note of to-day. Cabinet No. 26, Y'our ExceUency was good enough to inform me that the President of the Republic, in accordance with Article II, No. i, of the legislative decision of the ist of this month. No. 3,266, decreed the following :
Article i. — The Brazilian Government requisitions all the German merchant ships anchored in the harbours of the Republic in order to utilize them as may best suit the exigencies and necessities of navigation and commerce.
Article 2. — Once occupied, in the terms of the said legislative decision, these ships will be considered Brazilian, and may then hoist the national flag.
Article 3. — ^The Government will take the necessary measures so that, within the shortest possible time, these ships may be in condition to sail and to act as transports in accordance with the terms of Article i.
Article 4. — All dispositions to the contrary are revoked.
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 47
In acknowledging receipt of the said note of Your Excel- lency, I have the honour, in the name of the German Government, and at its request transmitted to me by the Queen's Government, to make a formal protest to the Government of the United States of Brazil against the requisition and utilization of the German ships anchored in the harbours of the Republic, and to reserve to myself the right to ask for compensation for all losses which such a measure may cause to German interests,
I beg Your Excellency will be good enough to acknowledge receipt of this note.
I have the honour to reiterate to Your Excellency, Monsieur le Ministre d'Etat, the assurance of my highest consideration.
Von Zeppelin ObermuUer. "^t His Excellency, Dr. Nilo Pe^anha,
Minister of State lor Foreign Aflairs.
REPLY OF THE MINISTRY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS TO THE NETHERLANDS LEGATION
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Rio de Janeiro,
June 5, 19 1 7.
Monsieur le Ministre,
I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of the note No. 710/22 of the 2nd instant, in which Your Excellency, in the name and at the request of the Imperial German Govern- ment, protests formally against the requisition and utilization of the German merchant ships anchored in the harbours of the Republic.
The measure adopted by the Government of the RepubUc, Monsieur le Ministre, in utilizing the German ships as a sequence to the torpedoing of ships of its own merchant fleet, insuring thereby, directly and immediately, although by force, satis- faction for damage caused to us, was an act of legitimate defence, based upon German law itself, and one which all nations prac- tise, without abandoning the state of peace, for the direct purpose of obliging the offending nation to make the reparations which are imperatively due from her.
Heffter, the great German authority on International Law, not to quote Lafayette, Ruy Barbosa, and other national jurists, states :
*' Reprisals are understood to-day to be all actual measures which a Government makes use of against another State, against the subjects of that State or against the goods of the said
48
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
subjects, with the object of forcing the Foreign Power to recog- nize justice in the matters in dispute, or to obtain from her a just satisfaction, or to make her do justice on her own part.
"Such a sequestration, a simple measure of precaution, has the exclusive object of offering a pledge without conferring any right over the lives of persons or over the goods seques- trated. But these, if the satisfaction demanded continues to be refused, can incontestably be used for the reparation of the injured interests.
" Any refusal, or any delay, which one of the parties arbitrarily opposes to the just demand of the other, gives it the incon- testable right to have recourse to reprisals, it making Uttle difference what form the refusal or delay takes."
Finally, Monsieur le Ministre, the Government of the RepubUc, by guarding private property and giving assistance to the crews of the ship, has not passed beyond the serene region of the principles and laws which govern international society, having only acted in defence of its flag and the interests of the country.
I take the opportunity to reiterate to Your Excellency the assurance of my high consideration.
Nilo Peganha.
His Excellency, Monsieur Louis Jean Charles von Zeppelin Obermuller^ Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Her Majesty the Queen of the Netherlands.
CIRCULAR NOTE TO THE FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS
CIRCULAR NOTE FROM THE BRAZILIAN GOVERN- MENT, DISPATCHED THROUGH ITS DIPLOMATIC REPRESENTATIVES
(Telegram of June 2, 1917.)
I beg Your Excdlency, on the receipt of this note to communicate it to the Government.
The President of the RepubHc has charged me to commu- nicate to Your Excellency'^ Government the fact that he has
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 49
just sanctioned the law which revokes Brazil's neutrality in the war between the United States of America and the German Government.
The Republic has thus recognized that one of the belli- gerents is an integral part of the American continent, and that we are bound to this belligerent by a traditional friendship and by a similarity of political opinion in the defence of the vital interests of America and the principles accepted by International Law.
Brazil never had, and still has not, warlike ambitions, and if she always abstained from any partiality in the European conflict, she could not remain indifferent to it, when the United States were drawn into the struggle without any interest therein but in the name alone of respect for International Law, and when Germany extended indiscriminately to ourselves and other neutrals the most violent acts of war.
If hitherto the relative lack of reciprocity on the part of the American Repubhcs has withdrawn from the Monroe Doc- trine its true character, permitting a scarcely well founded interpretation of the prerogatives of their sovereignty, the present events, by placing Brazil, even now, at the side of the United States, in the critical moment of the world's history, continue to give our foreign poHcy a practical form of continental solidarity — a policy indeed which was that of the old regime on every occasion on which any of the other friendly sister nations of the American continent were in jeopardy.
The Republic has followed rigorously our political and diplo- matic traditions, and has been faithful to the liberal principles in which the nation was educated.
Thus fulfilling our duty, and Brazil taking up the place indicated by its antecedents and by its conscience as a free people, we shall maintain, whatever may be the events which await us to-morrow, the Constitution by which we are ruled and which has been surpassed by none hitherto, in its guarantees to the rights, life, and property of foreigners.
In informing Your Excellency of the above resolution, I have the greatest pleasure in asking you, by order of the President of the Republic, to bear to your Government the sentiments of the unalterable friendship of the people and Government of Brazil.
I avail myself of the opportunity to renew to Your Excellency the assurance of my . . .
Nilo Peganha. 4
50 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
REPLY OF THE FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS TO THE FOREGOING CIRCULAR NOTE
THE REPUBLIC OF BOLIVIA'
[Text in Spanish.]
Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Public Worship, La Paz,
Diplomatic Section. No. 296.
June 5, 1917.
Monsieur le Ministre,
I have had the honour to receive Your Excellency's very kind note of yesterday, in which, by instruction of Your Excellency's Government, you were good enough to inform me that your Government had just sanctioned the law which revokes Brazil's neutrality in the war between the United States of America and the German Empire.
In informing this Chancery of that important fact, Your Excellency points out to me that Brazil has recognized in this that one of the belligerents forms an integral part of the American continent ; that she is united to it by traditional friendship and by a similarity of political opinion in the defence of the vital interests of America and the principles sacred to Inter- national Law ; that if Brazil abstained from any partiality in the European conflict, she could not remain indifferent now that the United States are drawn into the struggle without any interest therein, and only in the name of a respect for International Law, while Germany exercises indiscriminately towards the neutral countries the most violent acts of war.
Your Excellency states further, that if hitherto the lack of reciprocity of the American Republics deprived the Monroe Doctrine of its true character, allowing a less well-fotmded interpretation of the prerogatives of their sovereignty, the present events, by placing Brazil at the side of the United States in a critical moment of the world's history, give, in accordance with the political and diplomatic traditions of Your Excellency's country, a practical form of continental solidarity to her foreign policy.
Your Excellency also adds that Brazil will maintain, whatever may be the events to come, the Constitution by which she is ruled, which is surpassed by none in its guarantees to the rights,
[* Bolivia broke o3i relations with Germany April 13, 191 7.]
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 61
life, and property of foreigners, and concludes by communicating to me the wish of His Excellency the President of the Republic of Brazil, that I should bear to my Government the sentiments of the unalterable friendship of the Brazilian people and Government.
In accordance with the wishes expressed by Your Excellency, I have communicated to the Chief of the State the text of the important note to which I have just referred.
His Excellency the President of the Republic has followed with the greatest interest each of the points to which, with a high notion of Americanism and equity. Your Excellency's note refers, and charges me, in his turn, to beg Your Excellency to transmit to your Government the sentiments of warm sym- pathy with which the Republic of Bolivia regards the attitude of Brazil, which gives a happy interpretation to the Monroe Doctrine, by aligning itself with the United States of North America, in defence of the rights of neutral States injured in every respect by the means of warfare employed by Germany with a complete disregard for the principles hitherto recognized by the Right of Nations.
I avail myself of the opportimity to offer to Your Excellency, once more, the assurance of my very high and distinguished consideration.
. Pldcido Sdnchez, Monsieur Rinaldo de Lima e Si vUy
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States of Brazil.
THE KINGDOM OF ITALY (Translation.)
Ministry for Foreign Affairs Rome. 23/208.
June 19, 1917.
Monsieur le Ministre^
I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of the note dated the 5th instant, in which Your Excellency was good enough to inform the Royal Government that the President of the Republic of the United States of Brazil had sanctioned the law revoking neutrality in the war between the United States of North America and the German Empire.
The Royal Government and the Italian nation learned with the greatest satisfaction that Brazil had taken the place which, through her glorious traditions, was reserved for her in the
52 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
world struggle for the triumph of the justice and liberty of peoples.
Ihe sentiments of friendship which Your Excellency was kind enough to express to the Royal Government, in the name of the President of the Republic, on behalf of the Brazilian people and Government, are entirely and sincerely shared by the Royal Government and the Itahan people.
I am happy to be, by the kind mediation of Your Excellency, the bearer to the Government of your country, of the good wishes of the Italian Nation and the Royal Government for the glory and prosperity of Brazil.
I avail myself of the opportunity to offer you, Monsieur le Ministre, the assurance of my high consideration.
S. Sonnino.
His Excellency^ Monsieur Pedro de Toledo^ Minister ol the United States oi Brazil.
THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC ^
[Text in Spanish.']
Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Public Worship,
Buenos Aires,
June n, 1917-
Monsieur le Charge d'affaires.
In acknowledging receipt of your note of the 4th instant, in which you inform me that the Brazilian Government has sanctioned the law revoking its neutrality in the war between the United States and Germany, it is a pleasure to me to ratify the sentiments expressed by the Argentine Government in its communication of April 12 ultimo.*
I greet you with my distinguished consideration.
Honorio Pueyrredon.
Monsieur Eduardo RamoSf Charg6 d'Affaires oi Brazil.
[I See also post^ p. 113.]
[a The note referred to here was written on receipt of the information that Brazil had broken oft relations with Germany : it contained the following :
" The Government of the Republic of Argentina which, in the defence of the principles of International Law, has just stated its opinion on this subject, duly appreciates the attitude assumed by the United States of Brazil, which is in exact conformity with those principles, and expresses the most open sentiments of fraternity."
This note in its turn had reference to the Argentine reply to the United
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 53
THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT OF RUSSIA
(Translation.)
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Petrograd,
May 2^1 June ii, igiy. Monsieur le Charge d'affaires,
I have the honour to receive the note of June 8/May 26 of the current year, in which you informed me of the law which has been sanctioned by the President of the Repubhc, revoking Brazil's neutrality in the war between the United States of America and the German Empire.
I thank you for this important communication, and in taking note of it, I hasten to tell you how greatly the Russian Pro- visional Government appreciates the noble motives of the Republic's Government so eloquently expressed in your above- mentioned note and which served as the basis of that decision.
The Republic of Brazil, faithful to its liberal principles, unmoved by warlike ambitions, bound to the United States by a traditional friendship and the same political orientation, and with a regard for International Law, did not delay, indeed, in taking the necessary steps, as a result of the violent acts of war extended by Germany inexorably not only to her enemies, but also to neutrals.
In congratulating the Government of your country for its energetic action destined to help the cause of right and equity, I hasten to assure you. Monsieur le Charg^ d'Aif aires, that the Provisional Government and the Russian Democracy as a whole are very moved by the sentiments of friendship of the Brazilian people and Government, and reciprocate them with the same sincerity and fraternity.
Accept, Monsieur le Charge d'Affaires, the assurance of my most distinguished consideration.
Michel Terestchenko. Monsieur G. de Vianna Kelsch,
Charge d'Afiaires of Brazil.
States note iniorming it of the declaration of a state of war between the United States and Germany, in which it said :
'* The Government of the Argentine Repubhc, in view of the causes which have led the United States oi America to declare war on the German Empire, recognizes the justice of this determination in so far as it is based on the violation of the principles of neutrality consecrated by rules of International Law, which were regarded as definite advances q| ciyilixfitipri."]
54 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
THE REPUBLIC OF CHILE"
[Text in Spanish.]
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Santiago,
June 12, 1917. Monsieur le Charge d'affaires,
I have had the honour to receive your kind letter of the 4th instant, in which you, in the name of His Excellency the President of Brazil, were good enough to inform Chile that the Brazilian Republic resolved to revoke, in the state of war existing between the United States and Germany, the decree which fixed its line of neutrality mth respect to the European war.
In reply, it is a pleasure to me to say that Chile, united to Brazil for a very long time by the closest bonds of fraternal cordiality, has followed, in these difficult times, with the most lively interest, the events which have taken place in her foreign policy as a result of the restrictions to impose which on the maritime sovereignty of the Neutral Powers, attempts have been made in the present European war.
My Government understands that the measures, under these circumstances, adopted by Brazil, are not inspired by warlike ambitions, but by the high spirit of defence and protection of her rights, and in fulfilment of the declarations which, on this very subject, she has already had occasion to formulate, together with the other Latin American nations.
The similarity of juridical opinion and the convenience of a policy of harmony in the American continent, are factors which force the Government and pubhc opinion in Chile to regret now more than ever the cause which has originated these events.
You alj^o say that the policy now followed by Brazil is a traditional one, which had its origin in the poUcy of the old regime, and was exercised at all times when the interests of the friendly sister nations of this continent have been seen to be affected.
This recollection is particularly appreciated by, and pleasing to, my country.2
Your communication ends with an honourable statement of principles, in which it is made clear that, whatever may happen, the Government of your Republic will not hold back from the
[* See also post, p. 104.]
* The reference here is to the BraziHan protest against the Spanish ]3Qflibardment ol Valparaiso, 186^. See pp. 40 and 79/)
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 55
duties of its conscience as a free people, and will maintain the guarantees due to all public and private rights.
These high conceptions will be received with unanimous applause by all peoples for whom respect for International Law constitutes one of the most valued advances of civilization.
I reiterate to you the assurance of my distinguished consideration.
A. Huidobro. Monsieur Luis G. do Amafal,
Charg6 d'Afiaires oi Brazil.
KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN
(Translation.)
Foreign Office. No. ii 1775/17.
London, June 12, igi?. Monsieur le Ministre,
I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of the Note of the 4th instant, in which Your Excellency was kind enough to inform me that the Republic of Brazil determined to abandon the attitude of neutrality which hitherto it maintained in the war between the United States of America and the German Empire. I should be glad if Your Excellency would be good enough to make known to your Government the most lively satisfaction with which I learned of its decision to fight for justice and liberty, assuring it at the same time of the sincere sympathy and friendship of His Majesty's Government.
I have the honour to be, with the highest consideration. Monsieur le Ministre, Your Excellency's most obedient, humble Servant,
Robert Cecil. His Excellency t Monsieur Antonio da Fonioura Xaxier, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Brazil.
ORIENTAL REPUBLIC OF URUGUAY ^
[Text in Spanish.]
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Montevideo,
June 13, 1917* Monsieur le Ministre,
I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of the note in which Your Excellency informs the Government of Uruguay,
[» See post, p. 84, for Rupture of Relations with Germany.]
56 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
in accordance with instructions from His Excellency President Braz, that the Republic of Brazil has just revoked its neutrahty in the war between the United States of America and the German Empire, by reason of the fact that the former belU- gerent is a part of the American Continent, and that the Brazilian nation is united to it by traditional friendship and a similarity of political opinion in the defence of the vital interests of the continent and the principles of International Law.
The Uruguayan Government, after examining Your Excel- lency's note, takes pleasure in stating that it sympathizes with the ideals to which the said communication refers, and reiterates once more its urgent desire that the policy of America, through a congress of all its peoples, should give expression once and for all in juridical formulae or practical actions to the fertile aspiration of continental solidarity.
United as are the nations of the New World by the eternal bonds of democracy, and by the same notions of justice and liberty, the logic of principles and interests, the better to ensure the free development of the latter and the efficacy of the former, should of necessity make, in view of the events which are affecting the world to-day, for a close unity of action in such a way that every act perpetrated against one of the countries of America with a violation of the principles univer- sally recognized by International Law, should constitute an aggression to all, and call for a united resistance from them.
Uruguay, Monsieur le Ministre, hopes that the American nations will adopt a collective resolution in this sense, either in a Continental Congress, or following any other procedure, and trusts that this hope which has determined her own antici- patory attitude will shortly be auspiciously realized, which will enable America to make an efficacious use of her moral and material forces, and give her all the influence in the destinies of the world to which she has a right.
I avail myself of the opportunity to renew to Your Excellency the assurance of my high consideration.
Baltazar Brum. His Excellency t Monsieur Cyro de Azevedo,
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiaty of Brazil.
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 57
THE FRENCH REPUBLIC {Translation.)
Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
Section of American Affairs.
Paris, June 13, 1917. Monsieur le Ministrk,
Your Excellency had the goodness to inform the Government of the RepubHc, in your note of June 5, that the decree of neutraUty of Brazil in the war between the United States and the German Empire had been revoked.
In pointing out the extent of this political act and empha- sizing in particular that the Republic of Brazil gave proof in this way of the coherence of its historical tradition. Your Excellency drew attention to the sentiments of loyal respect existing between France and Brazil. A similarity of institutions and the same democratic ideal, giving expression to natural affinities, reunite to-daj^^ these two Powers against the pre- tensions of a hegemony of Germanism.
I have the honour to express to Y'our Excellency for the communication which you sent me, together with the acknow- ledgments of the Government of the Republic, the gratitude of France, whose privations and sacrifices, stoically borne in order to bring about the victory of the cause of free peoples have multiplied the expressions of sympathy of the Nations guided by the same principles.
Pledged to the end in the defence of her independence, resolved to have it respected at any cost, and in complete agreement with the great RepubHc of the United States, which came into the war with the same object, having in view as well the most noble and disinterested desideratum, Brazil is entitled, through the dignity of her attitude and the grandeur of her intentions, to the highest praise.
It is particularly pleasing to me, under such solemn circum- stances, to make this declaration to Your Excellency in the name of my country.
Accept, Your Excellency, the assurance of the high con- sideration with which I have the honour to be. Monsieur le Ministre, your most obedient humble Servant,
Alexandre RiM. Monsieur Olyniho de Magalhdes, Minister ol BraziJ in P^ri§,
58 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
THE REPUBLIC OF PERU »
[Text in Spanish.']
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Lima,
June 14, 1917. No. 3.
Monsieur le Mintstre,
I have had the honour to receive Your Excellency's kind communication dated the 4th instant, intended to inform my (jovernment, on the instructions of the President of the United States of Brazil, that the law revoking the neutrality of the Brazilian Republic, in the war between the United States of America and the German Empire, has just been published.
With this object Your Excellency had been good enough to set out before me in extenso all the weighty leasons which have forced Your Excellency's Government to the adoption of this attitude, and you conclude by asking me, at the request of the President of the Republic, to express to my Government the sentiments of unalterable friendsliip of the Brazilian people and Government.
In reply I must inform Your Excellency that I have taken due note of the important resolution which Your Excellency has been good enough to communicate to me, as well as of the interesting declarations with which you support it, which harmonize with the opinions and juridical conceptions already expressed by all the peoples of America with reference to complications of all kinds and the enormous misfortunes of the present time.
Having accomplished with pleasure the request of the President of Brazil, 1 beg Your Excellency will be good enough to transmit to him, with our lively gratitude for the sentiments with which he is animated, the assurance of the perfect reci- procity in unalterable friendship of the Peruvian People and Government.
I avail myself of this new opportunity to reiterate to you. Monsieur le Ministre, the assurance of my high and distinguished consideration.
E. da la Riva Agiiero.
Dr. Augusto C. de Ale^icar,
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States ol Brazil.
f* See post, pr 81, for Rupture ol Relations with Germany.]
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 59
THE HOLY SEE
(Translation.)
Secretariat of State op the Holy See. No. 24,726,
The Vatican, June 15, 191 7.
The undersigned Cardinal Secretary of State has the honour to acknowledge receipt of the kind note dated June 5, in which Your Excellency informs the Holy See that the President of the Brazilian Republic has sanctioned the law revoking Brazil's neutrality in the war between the United States and the German Empire.
The undersigned thanks Your Excellency for this communi- cation, and has the pleasure at the same time of declaring to you the satisfaction with which the August Pontiff received the friendly expressions w^hich the President of the Republic, in the name of the Brazilian Government and people, sent him through you.
The undersigned avails himself with great pleasure of this occasion to reiterate the assurance of his highest and most distinguished consideration.
P. Card. Gasparri. His Excellency t Monsieur Caflos Magalhdes de Azefedo,
Minister of Brazil at the Holy See.
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (Translation.)
The Department of State, Washington,
June 16, 1917.
Your Excellency,
I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of the note of June 4, in which Your Excellency, in fulfihnent of the instruc- tions of the President of the Republic of Brazil, communicates to me the promulgation of the law revoking Brazil's neutrality in the war between the United States and Germany, and asks me to transmit to my Government the sentiments of unalterable friendship of the Brazilian people and Government.
I was deeply grateful to receive the notification of the friendly co-operation of Brazil in the efforts of the United States to safeguard definitely the principles of the sovereignty of Nations, and to defend the advances made in the alleviation of the sufferings and disasters of war, so patiently attained and with such exhaustive labour, in humanity's struggle against barbarism.
60 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
The United States highly appreciates the inestimable contri- bution brought by Your Excellency's Government to the cause of American solidarity, more important now than ever, as a protection for civiUzation and a means of making respected the laws of humanity.
I should be much obliged to Your Excellency if you would have the goodness to transmit to the President, Government, and people of Brazil, the thanks of this Government and people for this firm attitude, so much in keeping with the liberal traditions of Your Excellency's great country, an attitude of the greater importance in its final results in what must funda- mentally interest the well-being of all the American Republics.
In begging Your Excellency also to assure the Brazilian people and Government of the most cordial reciprocity, on the part of the people and Government of the United States, in their protests of friendship, always valued, but now become closer and more intimate by reason of the action of Brazil, I avail myself of the oppoitunitj'' to renew to Your Excellency the assurance of my high consideration.
Frank L. Polk,
Acting Secretary of State.
His Excellency, Monsieur Domicio da Camay
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Brazil.
THE JAPANESE EMPIRE (Translation.)
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Tokio. No 6.
June i8, 1917. Monsieur le Ministre,
I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of the note of the 6th instant, which Your Excellency was good enough to send me with respect to the revocation of the declaration of Brazil's neutrality in the war between the United States of America and the German Empire.
In informing you that I have taken note of this communication, I avail myself of this occasion to reiterate to you. Monsieur le Ministre, the assurance of my high consideration.
Viscount Itchiro Motono,
Minister for Foreign Affairs.
His Excellency, Monsieur E. L. Chermoni,
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary Qi Brazil.
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 61
THE PORTUGUESE REPUBLIC
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Directorate of Political AND Diplomatic Affairs, (ist Division)
Lisbon, June 19, 1917-
Monsieur l'Ambassadeur,
I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of the Note which Your Excellency was good enough to send me on the 7th instant, informing me, by order of the President of the BraziUan Republic, of the sanction of the law revoking Brazil's neutrality in the war between the United States of America and Germany.
I noted with the greatest interest the words accompanying Your Excellency's communication which emphasize its significance.
An integral part of the American continent, a free people educated in the broad traditions of her diplomacy, with a respect for International Law^ Brazil did not hesitate to manifest her solidarity with the great North American Republic, which in the name of the right, justice, and independence of peoples placed itself at the side of those Powers in Europe who are fighting for those ideals.
In no country could the resolution of the BraziUan Republic cause greater satisfaction than in Portugal. Related to the noble Brazilian Nation by so many titles, the Portuguese people acclaim another proof of the identity of feeling in the two countries in this solemn moment of the world's history.
The Government of the Republic, in thanking Your Excel- lency for the expression of the unalterable friendship of the people and Government of Brazil, charges me to assure Your Excellency that it is sincerely reciprocated by the Government of the Republic and by the Portuguese people.
I avail myself of the opportunity to reiterate to Your Excellency the assurance of my high consideration.
Augtisto Soares,
His Excellency, Dr. Gastdo da Cunha, Ambassador ol Brazil.
62 TEE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
REPUBLIC OF COSTA RICA^
(Telegram from San Jose, June 20, 1917 )
[Text in Spanish.]
The Minister for Foreign Affairs of Brazil,
I have had the honour to receive the very important telegraphic message from Your Excellency, in which you were good enough to transmit to me the note which Your Excellency's Government sent to friendly nations, informing them that the President of the Republic has sanctioned the law revoking Brazil's neutrality in the war of the United States of America with the German Empire.
The President of the Republic, to whom I gave an account of Your Excellency's note, has instructed me, in agreement with his Cabinet, to inform the Brazilian Government that he has followed with the most lively satisfaction the reasons taken into account for the issuing the said Decree, reasons which involve the defence of small nations, the solidarity of the American continent, the just and true interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine, and the restoration of International Law, all this as the safeguard of justice and democracy menaced with death in this tremendous struggle in which civilization is at stake, and which is to decide between that which pays homage to force, and bases its ideal on it, and that which looks upon the estabhshment of peace, justice, and hberty as the greatest aim. The Government of Brazil, in thus resolutely contribu- ting to this work of human redemption, deserves from my Government the most sincere and cordial gratitude, and takes its part in the high purposes in which the conduct of the great and powerful RepubUc finds its inspiration.
I must also express to Your Excellency that my Government on behalf of the Costa Rican people, appreciate and value to their complete extent the protests of unalterable friendship which the noble Brazilian Nation and her distinguished Govern- ment offer, and in uttering my fervent prayers that the admirable political traditions which so exalt Your Excellency's country, may always be upheld, it is very pleasing to me to reiterate to you the assurance of my high and distinguished consideration.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica,
Carlos Lara.
[* See post, p. So, for Rupture of Relations with Germany.]
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 63
THE REPUBLIC OF GUATEMALA'
(Teiegrant from Guatemala, June 22, 1917.) \Text in Spanish. 1
The Minister for Foreign Affairs (Rio),
I have had the honour to receive the kind telegraphic Message from Your Excellency dated June ig, in which you were good enough to transcribe for me the note which your Government sent to friendly nations informing them that the President of the RepubHc has sanctioned the decree revoking Brazil's neutrality in the war between the United States of America and Germany. In thanking Your Excellency for your kind communication, of which I have taken due note, it is a pleasure to me to reiterate to you the assurance of my highest and most distinguished consideration.
Luis Toledo Serrate,
Minister for Foreign Affairs.
THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC ^
(Telegram from San Domingos, June 22, 1917.)
[Text in Spanish.]
Minister for Foreign Affairs,
The Government thanks courteous communication, and congratulates Brazil solidarity of America.
Secretary Foreign Affairs.
[* Guatemala supported the United States attitude, and broke ofi relations April 28, 19 17.]
[2 The Dominican Republic has been occupied by American Naval Forces.]
64 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
THE REPUBLIC OF HONDURAS
(Telegram from Tegucigalpa, June 23, 1917.)
[Text in Spanish.]
Minister for Foreign Affairs of Bx^azil (Rio),
I have received with satisfaction the important message of Your Excellency, explaining the high motives for which tlie President approved of the revocation of Brazil's neutrality in the war between the United States and Germany. In my turn I have the honour to inform Your Excellency's Government that my Government, impelled by the cordial friendship existing between Honduras and the United States through a comnmnity of interests and the sentiment of American solidarity, resolved on May 17 last to join the cause defended by the United States, and broke off diplomatic relations with the German Government. While asking Your Excellency to be good enough to express to the President of your Repubhc the lively satisfaction which the Government and people of Honduras feel at the noble attitude of Brazil in this great conflict, it is a pleasure to me to reiterate to you the assurance of my most distinguished consideration.
Marino Vasquez,
Minister for Foreign Affairs.
THE REPUBLIC OF COLOMBIA
(Telegram from Bogota, June 24, 1917.)
[Text in Spanish.]
Minister for Foreign Affairs (Rio),
I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of the kind circular note of the 19th instant, in which Your Excellency was good enough to inform the friendly nations that the President of your Republic has sanctioned the law revoking Brazil's neutrality in the war between the United States and the German Empire, that Brazil regards the first as an integral part of the American contiticnt and that she is bound to it by a traditional friendship for the defence of American interests and for the principles acknowledged by International Law, that Brazil is not influenced by warlike ambitions, but could not remain
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 65
indifferent once the United States entered the war to defend the respect for international order, that Germany on her part extended to Brazil and other neutral countries the most violent military acts, that if hitherto the lack of reciprocity deprived the Monroe Doctrine of its real character, the present conduct of Brazil gives her policy an appearance of continental solidarity now that her cause is that 'of the other American nations, that Brazil obeys in all this her traditions and follows the liberal principles in which the Nation was educated, and that whatever may happen, the Constitution will be maintained in respect to the protection of the lives and interests of foreigners residing in the country ; I have hastened to send this communi- cation to the President of the Republic, and in accordance with his instructions I tender Your Excellency the due measure of thanks which this communication deserves, as well as the high appreciation in which the Colombian nation holds the motives, objects, and ends which determine and constitute the most important attitude of your country in the present international conflict.
I offer Your Excellency the assurance of my most distinguished consideration.
Marco Fidel Suarez,
THE UNITED STATES OF MEXICO
[Text in Spanish.']
Mexican Legation, Rio de Janeiro,
June 25, 191 7. Monsieur le Ministre,
In accordance with telegraphic instructions received to-day from the Under Secretary in Charge of the Foreign Affairs Office, it is a pleasure to me to inform Your Excellency that he has already brought to the notice of the Constitutional President of Mexico your kind message of the 19th instant, in which you were good enough to inform the Mexican Govern- ment of the motives which inspired Brazil in her revocation of the declaration of neutrality in the struggle between the United States and Gennany.
Also at the request of my Government, I beg Your Excel- lency to bear to the Brazilian Government the sincere thanks of my Government for the kindness in communicating the said resolution.
5
66 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
I avail myself of the opportunity, Monsieur le Ministre, to renew to Your Excellency the assurance of my highest and most distinguished consideration.
A. Sanchez Fuentes,
ad interim Charg^ d*Affaires Dr. Nilo Peganha,
Minister for Foreign Affairs of the United States of Brazil.
THE REPUBLIC OF PARAGUAY
{Text in Spanish."]
Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Political and Diplomatic Section. No. 120.
Asunci6n, June 26, 19 17. Monsieur le Ministre,
I have had the honour to receive Your Excellency's note containing the notification made by the Brazilian Govern- ment to the friendly Governments that the decree announcing Brazil's neutrality in the war between the United States of America and the German Empire has been revoked, Brazil justifying her attitude by many arguments of American solidarity and similarity of ideals in International Law.
In the interview at which I had the honour to receive from Your Excellency's hands that important document, I had the opportunity to recall, on account of their bearing on the matter, the previous declarations of my Government.
In its note of February 12 to the American Legation this Chancery stated " that in the regrettable event of a war between the United States or any other sovereign state of America and one or several of the Great Powers of the other continents, the Government of Paraguay would adopt the attitude that the international life of the Republics of this hemisphere would be gravely affected, for their political, moral, and economic solidarity has become more and more emphasized in the last thirty years."
And on April 16, defining this conception, this Chancery stated in a note to the Legation in the worthy charge of Your Excellency that " the laws of neutrality, rigidly imperative in foreign conflicts, suffer the modification which is naturally imposed upon them by the force of the moral interests of solidarity between the American Republics.'*
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 67
With these ideas and sentiments the Government of Paraguay receives to-day the notification of the important resolution contained in Your Excellency's favour, availing itself of the opportunity to ratify once more to the Government of Brazil the protests of its invariable friendship.
Accept, Your Excellency, the expressions of my high con- sideration and esteem.
M. Gondra.
His Excellency, the Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States ol Brazil, Dr. D. Josi Manuel Cardoso de Oliveira (Asunci6n).
THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA (Telegram from Panamd of June 27, 1917.)
\Text in Spanish.]
The Minister for Foreign Affairs,
I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of Your Excellency's kind telegram, in which you were good enough to inform me that the President of your Republic sanctioned the law revoking Brazil's neutrality in the war between the United States and Germany. The same sentiments which inspired this determination of Your Excellency's Government, together with the special bonds which unite^ the RepubUc of Panama to the United States through the immediate co-operation of both peoples in the great work of the Canal, impelled our National Congress to declare its solidarity with the North American Republic in the present circumstances, and the President of this Republic to announce that Panama could not remain neutral in this struggle but would co-operate with the United States in defence of the Canal.
In thanking Your Excellency for your kind communication, it is a pleasure to me to express to you the lively sympathy of the Government and people of Panama towards the Brazilian Government and people, and the satisfaction with which the Government has seen your country affiliate herself with the cause of the right and liberty of peoples.
I avail myself of this opportunity to express to Your PCxcellency the assurance of my highest consideration.
Narciso Garay,
Secretary for Foreign Affairs.
68 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
THE REPUBLIC OF CUBA^
[Text in Spanish.]
Secretariat of State. No. 443.
Havana, June 27, 191 7. Monsieur le Ministre,
I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of Your Excellency's kind note dated June 4, in which you were good enough to inform this Government in the name of Your Excel- lency's Government that the President of the Republic af Brazil had sanctioned the law revoking neutrality hitherto adopted by Brazil in the war between the United States of America and the German Empire.
Your Excellency points out, moreover, that the Brazilian Government's determination to revoke her neutrahty in this struggle is not based upon any ambitious notion, but on her desire to recognize, in her present attitude, the United States as a beUigerent to whom she is bound by a traditional friend- ship, and by a similar and disinterested purpose in the defence of the principles recognized by International Law, and by a similarity in her point of view as to the safeguarding of the vital interests of the continent of which the North American people forms an integral part.
Your Excellency also points out that Brazil could no longer look on with indifference at the entrance into the war of one of the peoples which had always, with the greatest energy and courage, defended the principles sacred to modem International Law, and in particular those maintained in the Monroe Doctrine, in so far as it supports the inviolability of the sovereignty of the peoples of America ; on which account Your Excellency's Government considers that it has realized an act which may support and strengthen, in its foreign policy, continental solidarity, and which tends, in any case, to give more force to the attitude of the peoples of America, since the German Empire broke covenanted treaties and systematically violated the rights of neutrals.
In answering Your Excellency's note, I beg you will convey to the Government, which Your Excellency represents, the lively sympathy which the Government of Cuba feels towards an act of such importance as your Government has just realized.
[* Cuba declared war on Germany April 7, 1917.]
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 69
I avail myself of this opportunity to reiterate to Your Excellency the assurance of my highest and distinguished consideration.
Pablo Desvernine,
His Excellency f Monsieur Alfredo Carlos Alcoforado, Envoy Extraordmary and Minister jPlenipotentiary oi the United States of Brazil.
THE REPUBLIC OF ECUADOR '
\Text in Spanish.]
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Ecuador. No. io8.
Quito, June 27, 1917.
Monsieur le Charge d'affaires,
The fact that I was away a few days from Quito, on leave of absence, has caused the lively annoyance of not being able to give an immediate reply to your important note of the 15th instant.
In it you were good enough to inform me that the President of the Republic instructed you to inform the Government of Ecuador that the decree declaring the neutrality of Brazil in the war between the United States of America and the German Empire has been revoked. You add that the Republic, once that the belligerents form a part [sic for " one of the belligerents forming a part "] of the American continent, is united to it by ties of traditional friendship and a similarity of political opinion for the defence of the vital interests of America, and the principles accepted by International Law. You continue that Brazil never had, nor has now, warlike ambitions, and that if she abstained hitherto from any partiahty in the struggle caused by the European war she could not henceforth continue indifferent to it, once the United States was drawn into the struggle, not for any spurious interest, but in the defence of a respect for International Law.
You conclude by saying that events have placed Brazil at the side of the United States in the critical moment of the present time, in which your country has done nothing but follow the policy of continental solidarity which has been your policy since the time of the old regime, in every case when any
[* See postf p. 106, for Rtfpture oi Relations with Germany.]
70 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
one of the American peoples, united to Brazil by bonds of continental friendship, has been in jeopardy.
The declarations contained in the note which I am answering show that the highest conception pf Americanism animates Brazil in her relations with the sister nations of the Continent, to whom she is united by ties of a traditional friendship and a similarity of political thought in the defence of the vital interests and principles accepted as good by International Law.
My (jovernment well understands that the procedure of Brazil cannot be inspired by warlike ambitions, but by the defence of recognized rights, tending to the fulfilment of her previous declarations which are compatible with her inter- national political life and with the most correct juridical conception.
In deploring the reasons which have brought the war to our continent, and which Brazil considers justify her conduct, I must express the most lively sympathies for your country, the more so as she has been influenced by the general motives of the continental policy and American solidarity which have always inspired Ecuador, and also the feelings of particular respect for the sister State worthily represented by you.
I renew to j^ou at this opportunity the assurance of my distinguished respect.
Tobar y Borgono,
The Honourable Dr. Jarbas Lcreti da Silva Lima,
Charge d'Affaires ol the United States of Brazil in Quito. C.T.E. Ciudad.
REPUBLIC OF NICARAGUA^
(Telegram front Managua, June 29, 1917.) [Text in Spanish.]
Minister for Foreign Affairs,
I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of the important telegram. 19th instant, with the terms of which my Government agrees.
J. A. UrtechOy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Nicaragua.
]} Nicaragua broke off relations with Germany May 19.J
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 71
REPUBLIC OF HAITI*
{Telegram from Port au Prince, June 30, 1917.)
(Translation.)
Minister for Foreign Affairs (Rio),
I had the honour to receive the telegram of the 29th instant, informing me that His Excellency the President of the Repiiblic of Brazil sanctioned the law revoking the Decree of neutraUty of Brazil in the war between the United States of America and Germany.
In acknowledging to Your Excellency the receipt of this communication, which was brought to the knowledge of the (rovemment, I ask you to accept the assurance of my high consideration.
Chatelain.
THE UNITED STATES OF VENEZUELA
[Text in Spanish,]
The United States of Venezuela, Ministry for Foreign Affairs. D.P.E., No 763,
Caracas, July 17, 19 17. Sir,
I have received the note from your Legation dated the 8th ultimo, in which you kindly informed this Ministry that His Excellency the President of the Repubhc of Brazil sanc- tioned the law revoking Brazil's neutrality in the present war between the United States of America and the German Empire.
I have read \vith the deep attention which it deserves the statement which you make to explain the reasons which led the Republic of Brazil to adopt the attitude defined in your note.
In communicating the contents of the said note to my Govern- ment, it was a pleasure to me to transmit also the sentiments of unaltered friendship of the Brazilian Government and people which His Excellency the President of the Repubhc of Brazil charged you to express to the Government of Venezuela,
[I Haiti broke off relations June i8.]
72 TBB BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
My Government has received with the most lively satis- faction the courteous expression of the sentiments of the BraziUan people and Government, and has charged me to renew to His Excellency the President of Brazil, through you, the assurance of the cordial and sincere friendship and deep sjmapathy which my country feels for your Government and noble country.
I take the opportunity to renew to you the assurance of my distinguished consideration.
Ign. Andrade. The Honorable Carlos de Rosiaing Lisboa,
Charg6 d'Affaires ad interim oi the United States oi Brazil.
THE KINGDOM OF NORWAY
(Translation.)
Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Christiania,
June lo, 1917.*
MoNSiEUK LE Charge d'affaires,
I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of the note of the 5th instant, in which you were good enough to transmit to me the text of a telegram from the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Brazil, with reference to the revocation of Brazil's neutrality in the war between the United States of America and the German Empire.
Deeply grateful for the kind words which His Excellency the President of the Republic of the United States of Brazil was good enough to employ, in the telegram, with reference to the sentiments of friendship of the Brazilian people and Govern- ment, I have the honour to ask you, Monsieur le Charge d'Affaires, to have the goodness to carry to His Excellency the President the assurance that these sentiments are sincerely shared by the People and Government of Norway.
Please accept, Monsieur le Charge d'Affaires, the assurances of my most distinguished consideration.
Iklen. Monsieur Cesar Bodges,
Charge d'Affaires of Brazil, etc., etc.
* Arrived at this Ministry September 10, 19 17, when this volume was in the press.
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 73
KINGDOM OF DENMARK {Translation.)
Udenrigsministeriet, Copenhagen,
June 14, 19 1 7.* Monsieur le Ministre,
In your note of the 5th of this month Your Excellency made me acquainted with the contents of a note sent telegraphi- cally by your Government, with the object of being communi- cated to the King's Government, and in which the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Brazil was good enough to bring to the knowledge of the King's Government the fact that the President of the RepubUc had sanctioned the law revoking Brazil's neutrality in the war between the United States of America and the German Empire.
In acknowledging receipt of this communication, I ask Your Excellency, Monsieur le Ministre, to be good enough at the same time to bring to the knowledge of your Government that this Government does complete justice to the sentiments of unalterable friendship of the Brazihan people and Govern- ment, expressed at the end of the said note, and with which the King's Government cordially associates itself.
Please accept. Monsieur le Ministre, the assurance of my high consideration.
Erik Scavenius, Monsieur H. Alves de Araujo,
Minister of Brazil.
REPUBLIC OF HAITI
(Translation.)
Secretariat of State for Foreign Affairs,
Port au Prince, July 27, 1917.'
Monsieur le Ministre,
T had the honour to receive the telegram, by which Your Excellency was good enough to bring to my knowledge the fact that His Excellency the President of the United States of Brazil sanctioned the law revoking the neutraUty of that coimtry in the war between the United States of America and the German Empire.
* Arrived at this Ministry on September 10, 1917, when this volume was in the press.
» Arrived at this Ministry on September 14, 191 7, when this volume was in the press.
n THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
I did not delay in bringing this note to the knowledge of my Government, wliich is not indifferent to the principles of solidarity luminously set forth by Your Excellency.
It is a pleasure to me to profit by the occasion to express to Your Excellency the deep sympathy of my Government and the people of Haiti, asking you to bear these expressions to the Brazilian Government and people.
Please accept, Monsieur le Ministre, the assurance of my high consideration.
E, Dupuy. His Excellency, ihe Minister for Foreign Affairs of ihe United States of Brazil.
Rio de Janeiro.
REVOCATION OF NEUTRALITY IN THE WAR OF GERMANY AGAINST THE POWERS OF EUROPE AND JAPAN
DECREE NO. 12,533, OF JUNE 28, 1917.
Revokes decrees Nos. 11,038 of August 4, 11,066 of August 12, 11,092 of August 24, of 1914 ; 11,984 of March 10, and 12,171 of August 29, 1916, which ordered the observation of complete neutrality in the war of France, Russia, Great Britain, Japan, Portugal, and Italy against the German Empire.
The President of the RepubUc of the United States of Brazil :
By virtue of the authority conferred upon him by § 14 of Article 48 of the Brazilian Constitution, and having regard to the manifestation of Congress in No. 2 of Article 2 of Decree No. 3,266 of June i instant :
Resolves to declare null decrees Nos. 11,038 of August 4, 11,066 of August 12, 11,092 of August 24, of 1914 ; 11,984 of March 10, and 12,171 of August 29, of 1916, which ordered the observance of complete neutraUty in the war of France, Russia, Great Britain, Japan, Portugal, and Italy against the German Empire ; all dispositions to the contrary ate revoked.
Rio de Janeiro, June 28, 1917. 96th of Independence and 29th of the RepubHc.
,Wencesl.\u Braz p. Gomes. ' Nilo Peganha,
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 75
REQUEST FOR INFORMATION WITH REGARD TO THE PATROLS OF THE NAVAL FORCES OPERATING AGAINST GERMANY
NOTE FROM THE BRAZILIAN GOVERNMENT TO THE AMERICAN EMBASSY
Cabinet, No. 7 (12,239). Ministry for Foreign Affairs,
Rio de Janeiro, June 29, 1917. Monsieur l'Ambassadeur,
The Brazilian Government, with the firm intention of accelerating and developing its merchant shipping abroad, has made efforts to secure the necessary elements and is now well fitted out for this mainly since the increase in the Lloyd Brazileiro fleet through the utilization of the German ships anchored in national harbours.
The dangers, however, to which navigation for long journeys is subject compel the Brazilian Government to take certain measures and precautions so as to safeguard, as far as possible, her merchant fleet. z
For this purpose, I should be greatly obliged if Your Excel- lency would inform me what is the zone patrolled or guarded by the naval forces of your country, so that with the assistance of the war fleet of Brazil, on our coasts and for mutual interest, Brazilian ships may derive, for their greater safety, the full benefit of these patrols.
I have no hesitation in asking Your Excellency for this information, since Brazil's neutraUty has been withdrawn in the present war between the United States of America and the German Empire.
I have the honour to reiterate to Your Excellency the assurance of my very high consideration.
Nilo Peganha. His Excellency^ Edwin Vernon Morgan^
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America.
In the same terms, mutatis mutandis and under the same dates, other notes were sent out by the Minister's Cabinet to the British Legation, No 4 (12,240) ; to the French Legation (No. 2, 12,241), to the ItaUan Legation (No. i, 12,244), ^^^^ to the Japanese Legation, No. i (12,238).
The respective repHes are not published on account of the secret information in them.
76 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
TREATMENT OF BRAZILIANS IN GERMANY
SUMMARY OF A NOTE VERBALE FROM THE SWISS GOVERNMENT TO THE BRAZILIAN LEGATION IN BERNE
{Telegram from that Legation on August 9, 1917.)
It has become extremely difficult to enable Brazilians to obtain permission to leave Germany. Many have been waiting in vain for many weeks for this permission. This being the case, the Swiss Legation in Berlin is obliged to provide means of existence for those who for the most part are without resources ; for in spite of the generally recognized principles of assistance for the needy in such circumstances, the German Government refuses this treatment to the subjects of enemy countries, or of a Power in the position of Brazil.
Berne, August 9, 191 7.
NOTE VERBALE FROM THE BRAZILIAN TO THE SWISS GOVERNMENT THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN LEGATION AT BERNE
[I'elegram to the Legation of August 11, 1917.)
Please forward verbal note to the Swiss Government in the following terms :
The Brazilian Government has learned from a note verbale of your Ministry that the Brazilians still in Germany are being treated in a manner diametrically opposed to the treatment which the Germans in Brazil enjoy, where they freely carry on their ordinary activity in various branches of commerce and industry, in the enjoyment of all rights just as natives. Even the captains, officers, and seamen, almost three thousand men, from the German ships utilized by Brazil, are being treated with care, well lodged and fed by the Government.
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 77
Under these circumstances, the lack of reciprocity on the part of the German Government is not permissible, nor would it be right to allow this state of affairs to continue without the Brazilian Government taking measures of reprisal corresponding to the measures from which the Brazilian colony in Germany is suffering.
Meanwhile, the Government hopes that the German Govern- ment will facihtate the departure of Brazilians from its territory so as to avoid all avoidable evils.
JV*7o Peganha.
TELEGRAM OF THE NETHERLANDS GOVERNMENT TO ITS LEGATION IN THIS CITY, COMMUNI- CATED BY COPY TO THE BRAZILIAN GOVERN- MENT
(Note from that Legation of August 27, 1917.) (Translation,)
The Hague, August 25. 5,5 p.m. Dutch Legation, Rio,
Your 58 received. I think it well that you should inform the Brazilian Government that Brazilian citizens in Germany (are) not prevented from leaving the country, nor treated discourteously.
They are obliged to appear regularly before the local authorities (and) to obey the general rules relating (to the) right of domicile.
To leave Germany they must obtain, as must Germans themselves, a special permit, which necessitates a thorough examination as to their personality, which naturally involves a certain time.
Hoping that the Brazilian Government will continue to grant to German subjects in the future the liberty they enjoy at present, the Imperial Government will make efforts to accelerate, as much as possible, the above-mentioned formalities.
Loudon Trenteneuf,^ Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.
[1 Sic]
78 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
POLICY OF AMERICAN FRATERNITY
INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE BRAZILIAN GOVERN- MENT TO ITS MINISTER IN BUENOS AIRES
The Minister's Cabinet, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Rio de Janeiro,
July 4, 1917.
Monsieur le Ministre,
The organs of greater authority in public opinion approved unreservedly the suggestion of your name for the Legation in Buenos Aires. If the risks of the journey and the cost of installing yourself in Madrid can have a compen- sation, none could be dearer to your patriotism than to express in Argentina, with your presence more than with the words of the protocol, the sincere purposes of Brazil's policy.
It is a pity that our diplomatists continue, for the most part, to consider their appointments to posts in America as a punishment almost ; it is exactly because that is not your feeling, and because you obeyed with such goodwill the order of the President, that I take the liberty to recall to you, now that Brazil is returning to the point of departure of her diplo- matic history and her American ideals, that ninety-nine years ago, our Minister in Paris wrote to Rio de Janeiro, in March 1818, to the Government of D. Joao VI : " Brazil's Allies by birth must always be the North and South Americans. It is in the United States and Buenos Aires that His Majesty should have not ordinary Ministers, but Ambassadors or Ministers of the first, rank, as much in capacity as in honour."
At this moment more than at any other we need a policy of rapprochement and American solidarity in face of the European War, both in its political aspects and also in what has regard to the restrictions placed on the expansion of our natural wealth abroad, since we cannot abandon our right to live and trade freely with the world.
In laying down the bases of our policy in the River Plate, Jose Bonifacio, the Foreign Minister in 1822, wrote to our representative in Buenos Aires : " The condition of America shows to all who have ears to hear and eyes to see that an offensive and defensive league of the American States is neces- sary in order to preserve intact their liberty and independence threatened by European pretensions."
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 79
If to-day, nearly a century latei, we do not need to defend ourselves from Europe, it is our duty to unite so that the two Americas may provide a shelter for the principles and ideas in which Europe educated us, which form the moral heritage of the civilization of the Old World, and which the methods of war adopted by the German Empire have placed in jeopardy.
The line we are following is the line of our diplomatic tradi- tions : we took up our place at the side of the United States, and the first tics of our political emancipation bind us to them ; for we can never forget that Brazil, then a slave-owning Empire, was, when the great Northern Republic refused mediation from abroad in the War of Secession, the only nation whose good offices she agreed to accept for the solution of her peace at home, thus preserving the Monroe formula, but admitting the respect and, indeed, confidence and prestige of the South American nations.
Our initiative at the side of the United States had all the precedents in the history of the country.
In 1864, we had also taken up a place at the side of our friends of Chile when a Spanish squadron bombarded Valparaiso, and then, as to-day, without pretending to exercise any influence over the life or activities of the peoples living around us, we pretend at least, vvithout pride or servility, never to have failed in our duties as an American Nation.
Happily all attempts which arose in the course of the last half-century to divide America have broken down ; the A. B. C* itself, in spite of its admittedly noble motives or its high inspira- tions, has not gone any further as it seemed that it would cause a division ; the instinct of our own preservation, the advantage of not discussing in America questions which time has buried, as if they are asking in contradistinction to the A. B. C. for the complete alphabet, go to perpetuate the prayer of Bolivar in these prophetic words : "It is only united that America will be able to present herself to the world with an appearance of majesty and greatness unexampled in the Nations of Antiquity."
This policy of ours, of American fraternity without ambiguity or subtleties, is the historic poHcy of Brazil and of that great country [Argentina] ; and, indeed, was perhaps never so well described as by Manuel Garcia, the famous Argentine diplo- matist, who was here at the time of our independence, and who
[* A Treaty of Arbitration, between Argentina, Brazil, and Chile, signed in May 1915, but not completely ratified : it provoked much hostile ciiticiam in South America ; it will not probably come into force.]
80 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
knew lis thoroughly : " The interests of the House of Bragan^a have become homogeneous with those of the continent, in the same way as those of the United States and those of any other sovereign people established on this side of the Atlantic/'
Endeavour, therefore, to tighten more and more the bonds which hold together the two friendly Republics ; these are unrestrictedly the instructions of the Federal Government.
I have the honour to renew to your Excellency the assurance of my perfect esteem and distinguished consideration.
Nilo Peganha. His Excellency t Dt. Alcibiades Peganha^
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary oi Brazil in Buenos Aires.
RUPTURE OF DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS BETWEEN THE REPUBLIC OF COSTA RICA AND THE GERMAN EMPIRE
NOTE FROM THE GOVERNMENT OF COSTA RICA TO THAT OF BRAZIL BY TELEGRAPH
[Text in Spanish.']
San Jos£, Costa Rica,
September 23, 1917.
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Rio.
I have the honour to inform Your Excellency that to-day my Government has found itself obliged to suspend diplomatic relations with the Geiman Government in view of the fact that the cause of humanity compromised in the present world conflict demands it as well as do motives of strict conti- nental solidarity, which in a manner both opportune and correct Your Excellency set forth in communicating to this Government the revocation of Brazil's neutrahty ; these arguments have led Costa Rica to proceed in a similar fashion. I am, with the highest consideration, Your Excellency's
Carlos Lara,
Minister for Foreign Affairs.
THE BRAZILIAN GUEEN BOOK 81
NOTE FROM THE BRAZILIAN TO THE COSTA RICAN GOVERNMENT, DISPATCHED BY TELEGRAPH
September 26, 191 7.
His ExcELLE^XY, Dr. Carlos de Lara, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica,
We consider of great importance your Excellency's dispatch, which communicates the rupture of relations between your liberal and cultured nation and the German Empire, which, in the motives of its resolution, was greatly influenced by the spirit of Brazil's attitude in revoking her neutrality in the European war.
In thanking Your Excellency for this distinction, I express hopes, in the name of the President of the Republic, for the prosperity of Costa Rica and her Government, as well as for the success of the policy guiding us, which is that of the fraternization and union of the whole of America.
Please accept personally. Your Excellency, my congratulations.
Nilo Peganha,
RUPTURE OF DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS BETWEEN THE REPUBLIC OF PERU AND THE GERMAN EMPIRE
TELEGRAM FROM THE PERUVIAN GOVERNMENT TO ITS LEGATION IN RIO DE JANEIRO, AND COMMUNICATED TO THE BRAZILIAN GOVERN- MENT
[Text in Spanish,]
Lima, October 6, 191 7. The uselessness of the efforts to bring the German Government to settle our claim for the sinking of the barque Lorton in February of the present year, in violation of the fundamental principles of International Law, has forced this Chancery to demand of the German Government the satisfactory settlement of the affair within a period of eight days ; but the declaration made in Berlin to the Peruvian Minister that the German Govemm.ent considered it absolutely impossible to settle the affair in so short a period, decided me to ask for a meeting of
6
82 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
Congress to inform it of the Government's detemunation to break off diplomatic relations with Germany : the resolution was passed by 105 votes to 6.
I immediately ordered the Peruvian Minister in Berlin to ask for his passports, and have just handed passports to the German Minister here.
Inform the Government there of this state of affairs ; in the meanwhile we will send a direct communication informing it of the fact.
Tndela.
NOTE FROM THE PERUVIAN TO THE BRAZILIAN GOVERNMENT, BY TELEGRAPH
[Text in Spanish.']
Lima, October 9, 191 7.
The Minister Foreign Affairs, Rio.
From the beginning of the great armed struggle in which are involved the most powerful nations of the world, the Peruvian Government has strictly fulfilled the duties which International Law imposed upon it, and has upheld loyally the neutrality of the Republic, assured that its rights as a neutral would in their turn be respected by the belligerents.
When the war spread to the continent of America, in spite of the efforts which for some three years the Government of the United States put forth to keep that great people out of the struggle, new duties arose for Peru, based upon her desire for continental soHdarity, which has always formed the line of her foreign policy, and upon her necessity to defend her rights against the new form of sea warfare set up by Gennany.
It was on this account that the Government, when advised of the declaration of war of the United States caused by the acts of the Berhn Government in violation of the rights of people, far from declaring itself neutral, acknowledged the jus- tice of the attitude assumed by the Washington Government ; and it was on this account also that the President of Peru, in his Message to Congress and the Minister for Foreign Affairs in the Chamber of Deputies, declared solemnly, \vith the express ratification of Parliament, the adhesion of our country to the principles of international justice proclaimed by President Wilson.
The Peruvian Government could have desired that the policy of the continent should have been made uniform with the
I
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 83
attitude of the Washington Government, which took its place in the defence of neutral interests and unfolded the flag of justice as the aim of the war. But the course of events did not bring about the reVization of this solidarity as a collective act, and the individual countries of America found cause for their actions either in the defence of their own rights trampled undei foot, or in their individual adhesion to the principles invoked by the United States.
Peru on her part, while she endeavoured to realize her purpose that a uniform continental policy should prevail, maintained with all firmness the integrity of her rights as a sovereign nation in the presence of the German refusal to recognize the principles of sea warfare, and it is in defence of these rights that she has reached the rupture of her diplomatic relations with the Imperial Government as the result of an offence for which she made claims duly without obtaining the necessary reparation.
The sinking of the barque Lorton by a German submarine, on the coast of Spain, when that vessel was travelling between neutral ports, carr5dng on a licit trade, without even contravening the German dispositions with regard to barred zones, which are not recognized by International Law ; and the refusal of the German Government to satisfy our just demands, in spite of the invocation of the general principles of International Law, the consideration of the case, even within the arbitrary rules proclaimed by that Government and the presentation of a precedent in which a similar claim was settled by it ui a favour- able manner, are facts which have made clear to Peru that the pohcy of the German Government is carried out \vith an entire lack of justice, and that the attempt is justified which endeavours to put an end to this policy, so that a juridical standard which will establish for ever, in the relations between nations, the predominance of right, may prevail.
The contents of this communication and the documents which I shall send to Your Excellency, will enable your Govern- ment to learn the basic motives which determined our attitude, as well as the procedure of the negotiations to which I have referred, and to which the Government, with the express approval of Parliament, has put an end by recaUing its Minister in Berlin and handing passports to the representative of Germany in this city.
I avail myself of the opportunity to offer Your Excellency the assurance of my high and distinguished consideration.
Francisco Tudela.
84 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOR
NOTE FROM THE BRAZILIAN TO THE PERUVIAN GOVERNMENT, BY TELEGRAPH
October lo, 1917.
His Excellency, Francisco Tudela y Varela, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Lima,
I have the honour to offer Your Excellency and your Government, together with my thanks for the important commu- nication which I have just received, the congratulations of Brazil and the President on the stand which Pern has taken in the struggle which divides Europe at the present moment, and in which the future of the independence and freedom of the nations is at stake.
Peru, if Your Excellency \^''ill allow me to say so, has just taken a great stride in international policy both in condemning the violent methods of German warfare, in so far as they are vexatious and coercive to the freedom of trade of j^our glorious flag, and in helping America to maintain, now more than ever, a single truly American point of view, bringing together day by day the New World in a soHdarity which is already geo- graphical, historical, and economic, and which must be political also, influencing us all towards fraternization and the unity of the Republics of the continent.
Please accept. Monsieur le Ministre, my congratulations on the parliamentary ratification of your Government's high conception.
Nilo Peganha.
RUPTURE OF DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS BETWEEN THE ORIENTAL REPUBLIC OF URUGUAY AND THE GERMAN EMPIRE
COMMUNICATION FROM THE GOVERNMENT OF URUGUAY TO THAT OF BRAZIL THROUGH ITS LEGATION IN RIO DE JANEIRO
[Received October 16, 1917.)
I have the honour to inform Your Excellency that the Govern- ment of Uruguay, under the date of the 7th instant, has
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 85
declared broken off the diplomatic and commercial relations with the German Government ; and, authorized expressly by the National Assembly, drew up yesterday a Decree revoking, with reference to France, Britain, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Japan, Serbia, Rumania, and Montenegro the dis- positions then in force regarding neutrality.
In adopting this attitude, Uruguay does so through holding the opinion that it is no longer possible for her to remain a passive spectator in the world struggle when the supreme interests of democracy are being challenged by German autoc- racy, and in which are taking part countries united to Uruguay by a similarity of ideals, and to which she should offer her moral assistance and support.
Uruguay takes her place in the League of Honour, to which President Wilson alluded, ratifying at such a solemn time his honest and dispassionate policy, untouched by any inferior material interest ; and in doing so, she has no particular outrage to avenge, or direct offence to repress, but her attitude is based exclusively on principles of soUdarity with the defenders of Right and Justice, who, while they are the mighty champions of small nationalities, are also self-denjdng fighters for universal democracy.
Baltasar Brum,
Minister for Foreign Affairs of Uruguay.
NOTE FROM THE BRAZILIAN GOVERNMENT TO THE URUGUAYAN LEGATION
Cabinet. No. i. Rio de Janeiro, October i6, 191 7. Monsieur le Ministre,
I have the honour to thank Your Excellency for the communication from your Government, with reference to the revocation of Uruguay's neutrality in the European war and the rupture of her relations with the German Empire.
Brazil considers this event highly important ; if other peoples have taken up a position in the European struggle to avenge wrongs to their sovereignty or flag, Uruguay, faithful to her previous poUcy and the traditions of her national history, has done so disinterestedly in the joint defence of the American Nations, consecrating in practice the doctrine of her memor-
86 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
able Decree of June i8,i by which she could not treat as a belHgerent a country of America which found itself at war with a Power of another continent.
Thus the democracies of the New World are gathering to- gether : if all of them cannot give to the common cause, on the fields of battle, the assistance of their armies (and there are in Europe and Asia, AlUes and military Powers who also have not done so yet), if some of them have not yet found it convenient to give the co-operation of their war and merchant fleets, none of them, nevertheless, have failed to protest the freedom of their commerce agsdnst the excesses of German autocracy, or are wanting in the duties emanating from continental sohdarity.
Fortunately, Monsieur le Ministre, the European conflict will not divide America. The Nations of the Continent will continue united and friends, faithful to the cause of civiUzation and justice, without an excess of words or gestures, and pre-
[^ The iollowing is the text of the Uruguayan Decree :
Montevideo, Jwne i8.
Whereas in various communications the Uruguayan Government has proclaimed the principle of American solidarity as the governing motive of its international policy, taking the point of view that an offence com- mitted against the rights of any State of the continent should be considered as committed against them all, and should give rise consequently to common and uniform counter-representations ;
And whereas in the hope of seeing the realization of an agreement between all the nations of this continent in this respect so that it will be possible to make a practical and efficient application of these ideals, the Government has adopted an anticipatory attitude with respect to its actions, at the same time making known in each case its sympathy with those continental countries which have been obliged to abandon their neutrality ;
And whereas meanwhile, although this agreement has not yet been concluded, Uruguay could not, without doing violence to her sentiments and convictions, treat as belligerents those American countries which, for the defence of their rights, found themselves involved in an inter- continental war ;
And whereas this opinion is shared by the Uruguayan Senate :
The President of the Republic, in agreement with his Ministers, has resolved : — •
(i) To declare that no American country which in defence of its rights finds itself at war with nations of other continents will be treated as a belligerent.
(2) To take steps to annul any dispositions to the contrary.
(3) To make this public.
(Signed) Viera, Balthasar Brum, Arthur Gaye, Pablo Varzi (Jnr.), Federico R. Vidiella, Rodolfo Mezera, Arturo Jimenez de Arechaga, Santiago Rivas,]
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 87
serving above all their personality, their right of decision, and their sovereignty.
Please transmit, Monsieur le Ministre, to your enlightened Government, the congratulations of the President of the Republic and the assurance of the constant and loyal friendship of Brazil.
1 avail myself of the opportunity to renew to Your Excellency the assurance of my high consideration.
Nilo Peganha. His Excellency^ Dr. Manuel BetnardeZy
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the Oriental of Uruguay.
With reference to the relations between the American States and the German Empire, apart from the rupture of diplomatic relations and the subsequent declaration of a state of war, made, in the first place, by the United States of America, and afterwards by Brazil, and from the recent declarations of a rupture of relations communicated by the Governments of Costa Rica, Peru, and the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, other communications had been previously received concerning a rupture of relations on the part of the Governments of Bolivia, Honduras, Guatemala, and Nicaragua, and of a state of war on the part of the Governments of Panama, Cuba, and Haiti.
STATE OF WAR BETWEEN BRAZIL AND GERMANY
MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC TO THE NATIONAL CONGRESS
Gentlemen of the National Congress,
I have to fulfil the lamentable duty of informing the National Congress that, through telegrams from London and Madrid, the Government has just learned that the BraziUan ship Macau has been torpedoed by a German submarine, and that its captain has been taken prisoner.
The fact that this is the fourth of our ships sunk by German naval forces is serious in itself, but the gravity of the case in- creases beyond measure with the capture of the Brazilian captain.
This is not the time. Gentlemen of the National Congress, to deceive ourselves about the situation, or to fail to recognize eyen now the state of war imposed upon us by Gerrnany.
88 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
The prudence with which we have acted does not exclude, but rather gives us, the exact authority, by maintaining unin- jured the dignity of the Nation, to accept the facts as they are, and to advise the reprisals of avowed belligerency.
If the National Congress, in its high wisdom, does not decide to the contrary, the Government will order the occupation of the German warship which is anchored in the port of Bahia, placing the crew under arrest, and will decree the military internment of the crews of the merchant ships utilized by us.
The moment seems to have arrived, Gentlemen of the National Congress, to define according to law the defensive position which events have determined for us, by strengthening the means of national defence and completing the evolution of our foreign policy according to the aggressions wliich Brazil has suffered.
Wencesi.au Braz p. Gomes.
The Presidential Palace, Rio de Janeiro, October 25, 1917.
DECREE NO. 3,361 OF OCTOBER 26, 1917.
Recognizes and proclaims the state of war initiated by the German Empire against Brazil.
I, the President of the Republic of the United States of Brazil, make known that the National Congress has decreed and I sanction the following resolution :
Sole Article. — The state of war initiated by the German Empire against Brazil is recognized and proclaimed, and the President of the Republic is authorized to adopt the provisions stated in his Message of October 25 instant, and to take all the measures of national defence and public safety which he may deem necessary, opening the necessary credits, or carrying out the operations of credit desirable for this end ; dispositions to the contrary are revoked.
Wenceslal Braz P. Gomes.
Nilo Peganha. ,
Jose Caetano de Faria. Alexandrino Faria de Alencar. Carlos Maximiliano Ferera dos Santos, Antonio Carlos Ribeiro de Andrade. A. Tavares de Lyra.
Rio de Janeiro, October 26, 1917. 96th of Independence and 29th of the Republic,
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 89
CORRESPONDENCE WITH REFERENCE TO THE DECLARATION OF A STATE OF WAR BETWEEN BRAZIL AND THE GERMAN EMPIRE
MESSAGE FROM HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF THE UNITED STATES OF BRAZIL
(Dated October 27, 1917, and received November 3.)
{Translation.)
On learning this morning of Brazil's declaration of war on the common enemy, I wish to offer Your Excellency, Monsieur le President, my cordial congratulations and good wishes. The adhesion of your great country to the cause of right will hasten the day of final victory.
THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC'S REPLY TO THE FOREGOING MESSAGE
(Dated November 3, 1917,)
I thank Your Majesty with pride for your warm and cordial good wishes on the occasion of the decreeing of a state of war between Brazil and Germany. Brazil, driven to this by the repeated and inhuman attacks upon her merchant ships and violent acts contrary to civilization, is ready to collaborate with the Allies, according to her strength, in defence of the Rights of Nations so flagrantly and repeatedly violated by the German Governmen|,
\Venceslau Braz,
President of the Republic,
90 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF THE UNITED STATES OF BRAZIL
Allow me to express to Your Excellency, in the name of the people and Government of the United States, the sincere pleasure and cordial welcome with which we hail the partici- pation of the great Republic of Brazil with us and the other nations united in the war against Germany. Your action, in this moment of crisis, tightens the bonds of friendship which have always held the two Repubhcs together.
Woodrow Wilson,
THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC'S REPLY TO THE FOREGOING MESSAGE
His Excellency, President Woodrow Wilson, Washing- ton.
The Brazihan Nation has received with lively pleasure the words in the telegram which Your Excellency sent me, as the expression of the sentiments of the people and Government of the United States, on the occasion of our proclamation of a state of war against the enemy who set fire to the world.
In assuming this attitude in defence of the honour of her flag and the imprescriptible rights of peoples, Brazil thus has the honour to co-operate, in complete solidarity and perfect accord, with the great friendly sister RepubHc, at the side of the other AUied Nations, united in the w^ar against Germany to safeguard the higher interests of civiUzation.
Perils incurred together will tighten, we are sure, with the restoration of justice, freedom, and right in international affairs, the bonds of the policy which is the consecrated tradition of the people in whose name I return, through the high inter- medium of Your Excellency, the sentiments of irrevocable friendship of Brazil for the United States.
Wenceslau Bra2. p. Gomes.
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 91
MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE RE- PUBLIC OF THE UNITED STATES OF BRAZIL
(Received November 6, 1917.)
{Translation.)
His Excellency, Monsieur Wenceslau Braz, President of the Republic of the United States of Brazil.
At the time when, under the eminent magistrature of Your Excellency, Brazil, determined to safeguard her sovereign rights, decides by unanimous consent to join the cause of liberty and right, France greets with feeling your noble country. Faithful to the principles of Latin civiUzation, Brazil tightens still more the fraternal bonds which already united us closely to her, and solemnly affirms to the world the eternal power of our common ideal. I make a point of expressing to Your Excellency and your Government the congratulations of the Government of the Republic at the same time as my personal good wishes.
Poincare.
REPLY OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC TO THE FOREGOING MESSAGE
Novembef 7, 19 17. His Excellency, Monsieur Raymond Poincar^, President of the French Republic.
The BraziHan nation received with emotion the good wishes of the French Repubhc which Your Excellency was good enough to transmit to me on the occasion of our procla- mation of a state of war against the enemy who set fire to the world, and of our thus taking definitely our place at the side of the countries who are fighting for the cause of liberty and right. Grateful for this further manifestation of the nobility of the glorious people, the highest representative of Latin great- ness, Brazil, confident in the unconquerable force of the common ideals which animate the Allies, is proud to see her destinies identified with those of the noble Nation which, so strongly ^nd powerfully, contributed to her intelkictual formation, ajid
92 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
with those of the other countries which are attempting to save from jthe German fury the consecrated advances of civilization. With my best personal wishes for the future of Your Excellency and your Government, I have the honour to ask you to bear to it the fraternal sentiments of irrevocable friendship of Brazil for France.
Wenceslau Braz p. Gomes.
MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE PORTU- GUESE REPUBLIC TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF THE UNITED STATES OF BRAZIL
November 9, 191 7.
His Excellency, Dr. Wenceslau Braz, President of the Republic of the United States of Brazil, Rio de Janeiro.
By placing her immense resources at the service of the cause of the Allies and co-operating effectively for the realization of her high ideal of justice and liberty Brazil, as one of the most progressive of peoples, thus solemnly affirms her confidence in the definitive tiiumph of the Nations whicli are fighting for the victory of the basic principles of civilization. This noble attitude was to be expected at so grave a moment. Allow me to express to you. Monsieur le President, in the name of the Portuguese Nation, our admiration and enthusiasm, congratulating myself with pride to see the Brazilian Republic, always closely united to the Portuguese Republic, in so intimate a fraternization of sentiments and aspirations.
Bernardino Machado.
THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC'S REPLY TO THE FOREGOING MESSAGE
November 14, 1917.
His Excellency, Monsieur Bernardino Machado, President of the Portuguese Republic.
The expressions of great dignity and friendship with which Your Excellency, in the name of the Portuguese Nation, referred to the attitude assumed by Brazil at the present moment, in defence of the principles of Justice, Liberty, and CiWlization, met with the most lively and fratemsjl reception throughout the Bra?:ilian Nation,
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 98
Tradition, political ideals, and common interests, which unite by unbreakable ties Brazil and Portugal, make brothers of the Portuguese and Brazilians as much as the origin of race, and cannot fail to bring it about that both, inspired by the same will and similar aspirations, feel and think like one people when there is a just cause to defend. To-day, more than ever, this close union is confirmed.
I thank Your Excellency with deep feeling for your cordial and gracious message.
Wenceslau Braz p. Gomes.
FROM THE MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC TO THE MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF BRAZIL
(Translation.)
November 2, 19 17. In showing by a declaration of war, which received the unanimous sanction of your Parliament, her complete solidarity with the defenders of Right, your noble Nation has added to the greatness of her past a new page of glory. I am proud, at this solemn moment, to be able to offer you the assurance of the fraternal unity of the French Republic. The act which Your Excellency has just effected will remain in the history of Brazil as the most brilUant proof of her fidelity to the prin- ciples and ideal of Democracy. I am happy to send Your Excellency, with my personal congratulations, my ardent good wishes for your great country.
Louis Barthou.
FROM THE FRENCH MINISTER IN BRAZIL TO THE MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS
(Translation.)
October 27, 19 17. All my congratulations, my dear Minister, for the great act effected yesterday, fully worthy of your great country, of your great traditions, and of the statesman who controls her inter- national policy with such firmness and foresight. I am happy to see Brazil and France reunited by bonds even closer than
94 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
ever. Please, Your Excellency, transmit my respectful con- gratulations to the President of the Republic.
P. Claudel.
FROM THE MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF PERU TO THE MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF BRAZIL
October 30, 19 17. In learning of so important an event, I must express to Your Excellency the fact that the Peruvian Government appreciate the full measure of justice which accompanies Brazil in her attitude, and that my country renews, at this moment, the assurance of her deep sympathy for Your Excellency's country to whom she is bound by similar ideals of continental solidarity and by close bonds of an old friendship.
FROM THE MINISTER OF GREAT BRITAIN IN BRAZIL TO THE MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS
(Translation.)
British Legation, Rio de Janeiro. No. 112.
October 31, 1917-
Monsieur le Ministre,
I have the honour, to acknowledge receipt of Your Excellency's note of the 26th instant, in which you inform me that, in consequence of another Brazilian ship having been torpedoed by a German submarine and its captain having been taken prisoner, the President of the RepubHc has sanctioned the law proclaiming a state of war between this country and Germany.
I have now received instructions from the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to express the great pleasure with which His Majesty's Government welcomes the prospect of Brazil fighting at our side for the cause of justice and liberty.
I avail myself of this opportunity to renew to Your Excellency the assurance of my highest consideration.
Arthur Peel. His Excellency^ Dr. Nilo Peganha,
Minister ior Foreign Affairs, Rio de Janeiro.
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 95
FROM THE MINISTER OF BOLIVIA IN BRAZIL TO THE MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS
[Text in Spanish.]
Rio DE Janeiro, October, 1917. Monsieur le Ministre,
I have received to-day your kind note of the 26th, informing me that another BraziUan ship having been torpedoed by a German submarine and its captain having been made prisoner, the President of the RepubHc has sanctioned the law recognizing and proclaiming the state of war initiated by the German Empire against Brazil.
In such a delicate position, I must inform you, Monsieur le Ministre, that the foreign policy of my country has developed along the same lines as that of Brazil, and His Excellency the President of the Republic and his worthy Cabinet should reckon on this orientation in the new aspect which the international situation of America with regard to the European war has assumed.
For this reason I greet you. Monsieur le Ministre, and subscribe myself with all consideration, your obedient
Jose Carrasco.
FROM THE CHARGfi D'AFFAIRES OF THE REPUBLIC OF CUBA IN BRAZIL TO THE MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS
[Text in Spanish.}
Cuban Legation, Rio de Janeiro. No. 42.
November 3, 1917. Monsieur le Ministre,
I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of Your Excellency's kind circular note. No. 39, from the Direc- torate-General of Political and Diplomatic Affairs, American Section, of October 26 ultimo, in which you were good enough to inform this Legation that another BraziUan ship having been torpedoed by a German submarine and its captain having been made prisoner, the President of the Repubhc has sanc- tioned the law recognizing and proclaiming the state of war initiated by the German Empire against Brazil, and authorizing the Government to take the reprisals of open beUigerency.
96 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
I have informed my Government of the contents of the said note, and the Government, together with the Cuban people, feel a very real satisfaction to see Brazil, to whom they have been always united by the most cordial bonds of friendship, guide her foreign policy emphatically to the side of the peoples who are fighting for the triumph of the right and respect of small nationaUties.
I avail myself of this opportunity to renew to Your Excel- lency the assurance of my highest and most distinguished consideration.
Calixto Whitmarsh,
Charge d 'Affaires ad interim. His Excellency t Dr. Nilo Peganha,
Minister for Foreign Afiairs, etc., etc., etc.
FROM THE MINISTRY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE ORIENTAL REPUBLIC OF URUGUAY TO THE BRAZILIAN LEGATION IN MONTEVIDEO
[Text in Spanish.]
Montevideo, November 5, 1917.
Monsieur le Ministre,
I have the pleasure to acknowledge receipt of the note of October 29 ultimo, in which Your Excellency informed me that your Government, authorized by Congress, has decreed the recognition and proclamation of the state of war with Germany, imposed by the action of that Power in injuring the sovereignty, the goods, and the interests of Brazil.
The conduct of the German Government, characterized by a profound disregard for the rights of all the countries which are not her Allies, was severely condemned by Uruguay, which declared at the proper time that she could not maintain diplo- matic and commercial relations with a Gk)vemment which had systematically established the violation and disregard for the rights of neutral countries.
The new outrages which German submarines have just committed against Brazil do not therefore surprise us, and this fully justifies the resolution of Your Excellency's Government, of which the note to which I have the honour to reply informs me.
Please be good enough. Your Excellency, to express to the Brazilian Nation and Government the sentiments of loyal and gracious friendship of the Uruguayan people and authorities,
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 97
and their good wishes for the triumph of the noble cause which Brazil is about to defend with all the enthusiasm and enterprise which characterize her.
I avail myself of this opportunity to inform Your Excellency that the Uruguayan Government, in consequence of the declara- tion made in the decree of June i8 ultimo, ^ will not consider Brazil as a belligerent, and will not apply to her any disposition related to neutrality.
I reiterate to Your Excellency the assurance of my high consideration.
Baltasar Brum, Dr. Cyro de Azevedo
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Brazil,
TWO MORE SHIPS TORPEDOED
MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC TO THE NATIONAL CONGRESS
Gentlemen of the National Congress,
I submit to the high knowledge of the members of the National Congress the communication which the Govern- ment has just received of the torpedoing by German submarine in the waters of S. Vicente ^ of two more Brazilian ships.
Telegrams add that in this outrage by the enemy's naval forces we lost two sailors and that four of them are wounded ; the ships are the Acary,'^ of the Lloyd Brazileiro, and the Guahyha, of the Commercio e Navegagao, and were sailing for Havre with a cargo of coffee, hides, and cereals from Rio de Janeiro and Santos.
If, as is seen, Germany continues to decimate our merchant fleet and to stop by armed force our commercial relations with the world, it is no longer to be tolerated that her commercial, banking, and industrial representation and her colonizing rights, should not suffer the Hmitations advised by our patriotism
[» See antey p. 86.] [' Cape Verde Islands.]
[3 Ex-German Ebernburg.'] *
7
98 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
and that we should not take, with reference to them, the measures of exclusion and legitimate defence which may be necessary.
Without sacrificing the liberal spirit of our laws, it is not good policy that resources should be allowed to leave here for the enemy Empire, or that the relations in respect to private right of German subjects with the powers in authority should continue as before, in view of the state of war.
It seems necessary : First to declare null contracts concluded with Germans individually or as companies for public works of any nature ; Second, to prevent the realization of any new grants of land to German subjects or enterprises, with the exception of such as have been already settled by their f amihes ; Third, to supervise the activities of German banks and other enterprises, the Government being enabled, according to circum- stances, to suspend or annul the charters they may have for operating in the country, and to extend this supervision or acts of control to commercial houses or establishments of the same nationality ; Fourth, to take measures to prevent the transference of German property during the period of the war, the Legislative Power assigning the limits of these measures with regard to time ; Fifth, to intern, in a place not intended for an ordinary prison, German subjects who prove to be trouble- some or suspect with regard to the Brazilian cause.
These measures, or even others which Congress, in its wisdom, may adopt, should be drawn up according to the written law, avoiding thus the arbitrariness or excesses of the people or authorities.
There will not fail to be those who will insist, in the examina- tion of the suggestions made to Congress, such as those which have reference to the concession of public lands for colonization, on the constitutional prerogative of the States, but at this moment above all Brazil is a whole, and no unit of the Federa- tion should fail to respect and obey the sovereign authority of the Union.
In submitting these ideas to the judgment and better inspiration of the Representatives of the Nation, I must finally inform you that I have already authorized the Ministers of State for War and Naval Affairs to make without restrictions the changes and take the measures which are necessary for the efficiency and military organization of the Republic.
Wenceslau Braz p. Gomes.
Presidential Palace, Rio de Janeiro, ' November 3, 191 7.
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 99
LAW NO. 3,393 OF NOVEMBER 16, 1917
Authorizes the Government from now until December 31 to declare successively a state of siege in the parts of the territory of the Union where the necessities and require- ments of the situation demand it, and gives other provisions.
I, the President of the Republic of the United States of Brazil, make known that the National Congress has decreed, and I sanction, the following law :
Article i. — The Government is authorized from now until December 31 to declare successively a state of siege, for constitu- tional ends, in the parts of the territory of the Union where the necessities and requirements of the present situation of the country, owing to the war imposed upon it by Germany, demand it.
Article 2. — The Executive Power is authorized to declare null, during the period of the war, contracts and operations concluded with enemy subjects, individually or as companies, for supplies or public works of any nature, and also all negotia- tions which, in the opinion of the Government, may be considered injurious to national interests.
Article 3. — The Government is empowered, under the title of reprisals, to decree :
(a) That enemy subjects, their agents, administrators, or holders, by any title, of goods, effects, revenues, or credits, belonging to enemy subjects, as well as debtors of sums, revenues, or goods of any nature to enemy creditors, should declare, in detail, before the authority appointed therefor, and within the period fixed, the nature and value of the said goods, sums, revenues, effects, or credits, under the penalty, in the case of refusal or omission, of a fine to the infringer which shall not exceed an amount corresponding to 50 per cent, of the undeclared value ;
(6) the sequestration not only of all the goods, amounts, revenues, effects, or credits referred to under letter (a), but also those of which enemy subjects are creditors, in banks, banking houses, savings banks, pawnbrokers* or private establishments which receive on deposit, as guarantee, or for any object, goods, revenues, or merchandise ;
100 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
(c) the retention, in Custom Houses or public or private warehouses, of merchandise intended for enemies and found in their respective storehouses, being enabled to order the sale of the same, and to deposit the proceeds in the National Treasury, where they will be credited to each individual with full details, as a guarantee for indemnities for damage caused by the enemy to the Nation or to individuals ;
(d) the restriction, suspension, or use and enjo3niient, in the interests of national defence, of rights belonging to enemy subjects with respect to industrial property ;
(e) the prohibition of commercial relations between natives or foreigners resident in Brazil with enemy subjects living abroad, whether by direct relations or through banks, banking, or commercial houses, or private individuals established here or in neutral countries under the penalty of a fine of from one to three contos of reis and the confiscation of the effects of such transactions ;
(/) the inability of enemy subjects to take part in legal actions, as plaintiffs, with the object of obtaining patrimonial rights. This inability will not be extended to divisional actions, either administrative or contentious, the Public Ministry taking part in the various actions. The prescription does not operate against those under this inability if declared as above ;
(g) The suspension of judicial executions by pronounced sentence in civil or commercial cases, in favour of enemy subjects against natives or foreigners resident in Brazil ;
{h) the suspension of exportation abroad of merchandise or goods of any nature, of enemy ownership, including deeds, money, silver, or coined gold ;
(i) the liquidation of enemy enterprises, individually or as a whole, with due protection of national rights ;
{/) a special supervision on enemy enterprises whatever their nature, being enabled to suspend their operations or cancel their authority to operate in Brazil ;
{k) The internment in concentration camps, or in places not intended for ordinary prisons, of enemy subjects who prove to be troublesome or suspect to the Brazilian cause.
Article 4. — ^The Government is authorized to enter into agree- ment with the States for the revision of the existing contracts for concessions of public land, being enabled to rescind them, the Union assuming the onus of indemnity, with due respect
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 101
for the rights of settlers or proprietors already definitely settled.
Article 5. — During the period of the state of war a Brazilian or foreigner, not of enemy origin, a partner of an enemy in any company under a joint name, or in capital and industry, or as a sleeping partner, has the right to move the dissolution and liquidation of the contract of partnership.
Article 6. — Commercial or industrial establishments, associa- tions, companies, including limited liability companies, banks, factories, or warehouses, will be considered as of enemy pro- prietorship whenever the total capital, or the greater part of it, belongs to enemy subjects, wherever may be the head offices, in Brazil or abroad.
Article 7. — If an individual has more than one nationality, by reason of nationalization obtained in another country, and one of these is enemy, he will be considered as an enemy subject.
§ I. An enemy subject who had become a naturalized Brazilian before the declaration of war is excepted from this.
§ 2. For the period of the duration of the war the naturah- zation of enemy subjects is suspended, or of subjects of nations allied to the enemy.
Article 8. — ^The Government will set down in regulations or by instructions the process of enrolment and inscription of goods of enemy proprietorship, the supervision, sequestration, and administration of the same, as well as their eventual liquida- tion, in the terms of the present law, being enabled to nominate the administrators, agents, or liquidators with the powers and faculties necessary, Brazilian partners having preference for these posts according to their share of capital or seniority.
Article 9. — Insurance Societies administrated or belonging to enemies operating and having contracts in Brazil will be sub- jected to a special control which will be set up by the Government so as to safeguard the rights of BraziUans insured.
Article 10. — When the Hquidation of the enemy enterprises, estabUshments, companies, associations, banks, factories, and commercial houses is decreed, the Government will be enabled to order that the proceeds be deposited in the National Treasury, with due protection of the rights of natives and foreign subjects not of enemy origin.
102 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
Sole Paragraph. — From this deposit enemy subjects will be allowed to withdraw monthly for their support, according to civil legislation, sums of money which, in the opinion of the Government, may be thought sufficient.
Article ii. — ^AU the acts already put in force by the Government ordering measures in advance of this law are approved, the sole article of Decree No. 3,361 of October 26 of the present year remaining in force.
Article 12. — ^The Executive Power is authorized to make the necessary operations and open credits for the execution of this law;
Article 13. — ^This law will come into force at once. The Executive Power will take immediate steps that the whole text of the law shall be communicated by telegraph to the Governors or. Presidents of the States and to the Prefects of the Acre Territory, who will be instructed to pubUsh it immediately.
Article 14. — ^Dispositions to the contrary are revoked.
Rio de Janeiro, November 16, 1917, 96th of Independence and 29th of the Republic.
Wenceslau Braz p. Gomes.
Carlos Maximiliano Pereira dos Santos.
ALLIED, CONFERENCE AT PARIS ON NOVEMBER 30,
1917
INVITATION TO THE BRAZILIAN GOVERNMENT TO SEND A REPRESENTATIVE TO THIS CONFER- ENCE. CHOICE OF HER REPRESENTATIVE
The Brazilian Government was invited on November 13 to the Conference of Allies which met at Paris, November 30, 1 917, and immediately chose as its Representative Dr. Olyntho M. de Magalhaes, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Pleni- potentiary of Brazil to the Government of the French Republic.
The Conference closed on December 3.
/
TEE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 103
MEASURES OF PRECAUTION WITH RESPECT TO GERMAN SUBJECTS WHO EXERCISE CONSULAR FUNCTIONS IN BRAZIL ON BEHALF OF OTHER NATIONS
CIRCULAR NOTE TO THE LEGATIONS OF NEUTRAL COUNTRIES
Directorate General of Political and Diplomatic Affairs. Section of . . . Affairs. No. 41 (Circular).
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Rio de Janeiro,
November 27, 1917,
Monsieur le Ministre,
The state of war existing now between Brazil and the German Empire forces the Brazilian Government to take measures of precaution simultaneously with other measures of vigilance and public safety with reference to the continuance of German subjects within its territory. These measures, which cannot but be of a general character, restraining the liberty of action of the said subjects, forbid them naturally from exercising the least authority in any national or foreign position within the limits of Brazilian jurisdiction.
To allow the contrary would be manifestly imprudent, and would be the probable cause of evils perhaps irremediable.
In fulfilment of such measures, the Brazilian authorities are dismissing all German subjects who fill public positions or commissions in Brazil and abroad, thus withdrawing from them the means of effectively favouring the cause of their country if such were their intention.
The Federal Government proceeding thus, I must inform Your Excellency that, according to the universal practice and custom, it would not be possible to exempt from those measures German subjects who have until the present exercised consular functions in Brazil on behalf of other friendly nations The exequatur granted to them was obtained under normal condi- tions without taking into consideration the nationality of each of them. To-day, however, this point is of unquestionable importance, since German agents become incompatible with
104 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
the state of war existing between Brazil and their country, by reason of the local ascendancy and prerogatives which come to them from the very nature of the charges they fulfil.
The Federal Government, nevertheless, does not wish, by an imperative act, to cancel the exequatur already granted, in order not to disturb the commercial transactions of friendly nations on national soil, but it is convinced that the Governments ot these friendly nations, in view of the foregoing considerations, will not hesitate to take prompt measures to remove subjects of the German Empire from the lists of their functionaries in Brazil.
Nilo Peganha.
NEUTRALITY OF THE REPUBLIC OF CHILE IN THE WAR BETWEEN BRAZIL AND GERMANY
COMMUNICATION FROM THE BRAZILIAN LEGATION IN SANTIAGO TO THE MINISTRY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS
{Telegram of December 5, 1917.)
Santiago de Chile. Foreign Affairs, Rio.
PubHshed to-day Notice ^ from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of November 30 directed to the other departments, communicating the Government's resolution of neutraUty in the war between Brazil and Germany.
Cardoso,
[* The Chilian papers ol December 7 contained the following :
The Ministry lor Foreign Affairs has sent the Ministry ol the Interior the folowing note :
Notified of the state of war between Germany and Brazil, this Ministry has declared the resolution of the Government to maintain its neutrality in this conflict.
I inform you ol this lor your inlormalion, and in order that for all consequent effects, the instructions of this Department with regard to the observance ol our neutrality may be extended to the war between Germany and Brazil,
Eduardo Suarez Muiica.}
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 105
NOTE FROM THE CHILIAN LEGATION PREVIOUSLY SENT TO THE BRAZILIAN GOVERNMENT
[Text in Spanish.]
Chilian Legation, Rio de Janeiro,
October 30, 191 7.
Monsieur le Ministre,
I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of Your Excellency's circular note No. 39, in which Your Excellency was good enough to inform me that a BraziUan ship having been torpedoed again by a German submarine and her captain having been taken prisoner, the President of the Republic has just sanctioned a law which, together with recognizing and proclaiming the state of war initiated by Germany against Brazil, authorizes His Excellency to take measures of open belligerency.
In thanking Your Excellency for this kind communication — ^which I transmitted to my Government to-day — permit me to inform Your Excellency that Chile, influenced by the senti- ments of close friendship and solidarity which have always united her to Brazil, follows with the most lively interest the course of events which unfortunately have reached the normal and painstaking path of our sister RepubUc, and which are a further result of the deplorable happenings since the beginning of this war, making more and more difficult the life of peaceful nations which honourably exert themselves to maintain the rights inherent to their sovereignty and neutrality.
I avail myself of the opportunity to renew to Your Excellency the assurance of my highest and distinguished consideration.
A. Irarrazaval. His Excellency y Dr. Nilo Peganha,
Minister for Foreign AflEairs of Brazil Itamaraty.
106 THlB BRAZILIAN 6REm WOK
RUPTURE OF DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS BETWEEN THE REPUBLIC OF ECUADOR AND THE GERMAN EMPIRE
NOTE FROM THE GOVERNMENT OF ECUADOR TO THAT OF BRAZIL BY TELEGRAPH
[Text in Spanish.]
Quito, December 9, 19 17. Minister for Foreign Affairs, Rio de Janeiro.
I must inform Your Excellency that the suspension of diplomatic relations in which Ecuador stood with regard to Germany not having been rightly interpreted, which has pro- voked incorrect acts on the part of the supposed representative of that Empire in Ecuador, the Ecuatorian Government has found itself forced for national dignity to declare broken off its relations with the German Government.
I offer Your Excellency the assurance of my high consideration.
Tobar y Borgono. Minister for Foreign Affairs.
NOTE FROM THE GOVERNMENT OF BRAZIL TO THAT OF ECUADOR BY TELEGRAPH
December 12, 19 17
His Excellency, M. Tobar y Borgono, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Quito.
The President of the Republic, to whom I communi- cated the important resolution of the Government of Ecuador, offers that noble Republic Brazil's most cordial congratulations.
Your Excellency can well understand our emotion on seeing Ecuador take her place among the people devoted to the American cause precisely at the moment when the position of the Allied arms seems most critical.
The Nations of the New World which have not uttered opinions on the European struggle to contest territory or markets, to avenge old wrongs, or to set up governments which only
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 107
the nations concerned have the right to choose, but which are being drawn into it to defend their flags and the fundamental principles of the independence of peoples, we have firm confidence not only that the sea must be restored to the free commerce of Nations, the economic aspects of the war being solved in that sense, but also that there will not be, in the end, any senti- ments in America more prevalent than the immanent and sacred sentiments of the harmony, preservation, and political unity of this continent.
Please accept. Your Excellency, with my congratulations, the good wishes of the Brazilian people for the lasting prosperity of Ecuador and her enlightened Government.
Nilo Peganha, Minister for Foreign Affairs.
THE ANNULLING OF THE BRAZILIAN EXEQUATUR OF ALL FOREIGN CONSULS OF GERMAN NATIONALITY
DECREE NO. 12,766 OF DECEMBER 21, 1917.
Annuls the exequatur of all foreign Consuls of German nationality.
The President of the Republic of the United States of Brazil :
Whereas the state of war existing between Brazil and the German Empire forces the Brazilian Government to take measures of convenience and precaution simultaneously with other measures of vigilance and public safety with reference to the continuance of German subjects within its territory ;
And whereas these measures cannot but be of a general char- acter, and, restraining the liberty of action of the said subjects, forbid them naturally from exercising the least authority in any national or foreign position within the limits of Brazilian jurisdiction ;
And whereas it is not possible to exempt from those measures German subjects who up to the present exercised consular functions in Brazil on behalf of other friendly nations ;
And whereas the exequatur granted to them was obtained under normal conditions and without taking into account the
108 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
nationality of each of them, and cannot be maintained since the German consular agents have become incompatible with the state of war between Brazil and their country by reason of the local ascendancy and prerogatives which come from the very nature of the charges which they fulfil ;
And whereas, finally, the urgency of the case does not allow the Brazilian Government to wait any longer for the measures which it asked of the friendly Governments in the sense that they should exonerate the consular agents in question, measures which, moreover, it believes would not be refused :
Decrees :
The exequatur granted to the nominations of German subjects to exercise the charge of Consul for any foreign Governments in Brazil is annulled.
Rio de Janeiro. December 21, 1917. 96th of Independence and 29th of the Republic.
Wenceslau Braz p. Gomes.
Nilo Peganha.
THE PRACTICAL EXPRESSION OF BRAZIL'S CO^ OPERATION IN THE WAR OF THE ALLIED POWERS AGAINST GERMANY
COMMUNICATION FROM THE BRAZILIAN LEGATION IN LONDON TO THE MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS.
{Telegram dated December 21, 1917.)
London, December 21, 1917. No. 228. In reply to your 220. A Note from the Foreign Office dated 21 requests me to send Your Excellency sincere thanks for the practical expression of Brazil's solidarity with the Allied Powers, and, in the name of the British Admiralty, asks whether we can send a fleet of light cruisers and destroyers to co-operaie in . . . with the Allied fleet under the command of the British Vice-Admiral there. The Admiralty will supply coal, provisions and repairs in return for payment.
Fontoura,
I
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 109
REPLY OF THE MINISTRY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS TO THE BRAZILIAN LEGATION IN LONDON.
(Telegram dated December 31, 1917.)
Brazilian Minister, London. No. 230.
In reply to your 228, Your Excellency may inform the Admiralty that the Federal Government, fulfilling its duty of giving a practical expression of Brazil's solidarity with the Allied Nations, has ordered a fleet to make ready, composed of the scouts Rio Grande do Sul and Bahia and the destroyers Parahyba, Rio Grande do Norte, Piauhy, and Santa Catharina, which will leave to take part in the operations, under the orders of the Single Naval Command in the port allotted to it.
The ships are getting ready, and should arrive in European waters on the . . . next.
I should also inform Your Excellency that the Minister of the Navy stated to the President of the Republic that the Brazilian Navy received without hesitation and, indeed, with enthusiasm the order to leave for the seat of war.
Nilo Peganha.
NOTE FROM THE BRITISH LEGATION TO THE BRAZILIAN GOVERNMENT
(Translation.)
British Legation, Petropolis. No. 13.
January 12, 19 18.
Monsieur le Ministre,
Having been assured in my last interview with Your Excellency, on the 3rd instant, that the President of the Republic greatly appreciated the expressions of sympathy manifested by my August Sovereign, during the audience granted a short time ago to the Brazilian Minister at the British Court, with regard to the co-operation of the Government of this Republic in the air service of the war, I have the honour to inform Your Excellency that, in compliance with your request, I inquired whether ten aviators might leave for Britain.
110 TEE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
Having regard to the pre-eminent position which, from the beginning, your country has held among the nations that cultivate thq modem science of aviation, I am authorized to inform Your Excellency, which I do with the greatest satis- faction, that His Majesty's Government will have particular pleasure in accepting the services of ten representatives of so distinguished a body as that of Brazilian aviators, and I am instructed furthermore to ask you to let me have as soon as possible the names of these gentlemen, the date of their departure from Brazil, and, approximately, that of their arrival in Great Britain.
I think I may take this opportunity to say that I feel sure that this decision will greatly please the President of the Republic of Brazil, not only because this signifies the value which His Majesty's Government attributes to Brazil's co-operation in the present great world struggle to safeguard the principles of liberty, humanity, and civilization, but also because it shows the sentiments of deep friendship which have always united our countries, and which could not be more efficaciously conse- crated than by our present circumstances, fighting by the side of each other in defence of the noblest of all causes.
It will not be in aviation alone that we will co-operate, since I am informed by a telegram from the Admiralty that the Brazilian Government has been invited to send a naval force of light cruisers and destroyers to co-operate with the Allied squadrons stationed at . . . and Your Excellency has informed me that the Brazilian Government has accepted this invitation. While congratulating myself with Your Excellency on our confraternity of arms, which we shall always recall with pride, allow me to repeat the words of my Sovereign in his last message to the President :
" The adhesion of your great country to the cause of justice will hasten the day of final victory."
I avail myself of this opportunity, Monsieur le Ministre, to renew to Your Excellency the assurance of my highest consideration.
Arthur Peel. His Excellency, Dr. Nilo Peganha, etc., etc., etc.
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 111
NOTE FROM THE BRAZILIAN GOVERNMENT TO THE BRITISH LEGATION IN REPLY TO THE ABOVE
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Directorate-General of Political AND Diplomatic Affairs, Section of Europe, Asia, Africa, and Oceania. No. 6.
Rio de Janeiro, January 22, 1918.
Monsieur le Ministre,
I brought without delay, as was my duty, to the knowledge of the President of the Republic the cordial expres- sions in the note which Your Excellency sent me on the 12th of this month, and the pleasing information therein that the Government of His Britannic Majesty would welcome the visit to Britain of ten naval officers for aviation service in the war.
Your Excellency was not mistaken when you expressed, in that note, your assurance of the extreme pleasure which the decision taken by the British Government would cause the President of the Republic ; for the sentiments of cordiaHty expressed by a great traditional friend of Brazil, as your great country has always been, can never be indifferent not only to him as the First Magistrate of the Nation, but also to the BraziUan people.
In the present armed struggle, small contributions are not to be despised ; for they represent a material protest against the violent means practised by the enemy, subversive of the universally recognized principles of Right, Justice, and Humanity; and a portion which, according to its degree, will increase that formidable united and vigorous force which is opposed to these violences, with the object of establishing a lasting peace on earth.
It is, therefore, in the name of the President of the Republic, and with the request that you will bring it to the august notice of His Britannic Majesty, that I have the honour to thank Your Excellency extremely for the decision of your Government and to inform you that BraziUan co-operation, with the British Forces, of a squadron of light cruisers and destroyers and of a group of aviators from the Naval Aviation Corps, represents the contribution of a sincere ally, and will give occasion for Brazilians, EngUshmen, and Allies, already closely united in manifestations of peaceful activity, to co-operate under the shadow of our flags in the violent struggles on the field of battle.
112 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
I will send Your Excellency in another note the information you require with regard to the Brazihan aviators.
I avail myself of this opportunity to renew to Your Excellency, Monsieur le Ministre, the assurance of my highest consideration.
Nilo Peganha, His Excellency, Arthur Robert Peel,
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of His Britannic Majesty.
NOTE FROM THE BRITISH LEGATION TO THE BRAZILIAN GOVERNMENT
(Translation.)
British Legation, Petropolis. No. 25.
February 11, 191 8. Monsieur le Ministre,
I have the honour to inform Your Excellency in confi- dence that the British Admiralty has decided that the units of the Brazilian Navy which are to co-operate with the British naval forces, would do better service to the AlUed cause by going to . . . and operating from that base, under the command of the Superior British Officer, in conjunction with the units of the United States Navy, which are also stationed in that port.
I hope that this decision will be agreeable to the BraziUan Government, and that the units of the BraziUan and North American Navies will co-operate in a friendly spirit with the British naval forces for the maintenance and protection of the vital maritime routes between the continents of Europe and America.
I avail myself of the opportunity to renew to Your Excellency the assurance of my highest esteem and consideration.
Arthur Peel, His Excellency, Dr. Nilo Peganha^, etc., etc.,, etc,
Rio de Janeiro.
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 113
REPLY OF THE ARGENTINE GOVERNMENT TO THE COMMUNICATION OF A STATE OF WAR BETWEEN BRAZIL AND GERMANY
NOTE FROM THE ARGENTINE GOVERNMENT TO THE BRAZILIAN LEGATION IN BUENOS AIRES
[Text in Spanish.]
Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Public Worship.
Buenos Aires, February i, 1918.
Monsieur le Ministre,
I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of Your Excellency's note informing this Government of the declaration of war of the United States of Brazil on the German Empire.
The Argentine Government deeply affected by the causes which have determined it, which they have followed in all their phases, appreciate this just determination in its high significance in face of the fundamental principle which charac- terizes the honour and sovereignty of Nations.
With these opinions, I renew to the great Brazilian Nation and her Government the admiration and good wishes of the Argentine Nation and Government.
I offer Your Excellency the assurance of my riiost distinguished consideration.
Pueyrredon. His Excellency, Dr. Alcihiades Pe^anha,
Envoy Extraordinaty and Minister Plenipotentiary ol Brazil.
114 THE BBAZtLlAN GREEN BOOK
ADMISSION OF STUDENTS FROM THE OTHER AMERICAN REPUBLICS TO THE MILITARY AND NAVAL COLLEGES AND ACADEMIES OF BRAZIL
NOTE FROM THE MINISTRY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS TO THAT OF WAR
Protocol Section, No. 3, Ministry for Foreign Affairs,
February 4, 191 8.
Monsieur le Ministre,
In the development of the policy of American frater- nity, towards which we are working in this Government, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs has the honour to suggest to the Ministry of War and the Ministry of the Navy the permanent arrangement for the enrolment in the Military School and the Naval School of scholars, cadets, or students from the other Republics of this continent who have requested this through their respective Governments.
The measure which, in accordance with the views of the President of the Republic, I now submit for Your Excellency's examination and approval will surely bring the advantage of reciprocity ; but whether this is the case or not, what we American Nations, who are just outhning the improvements in our War Fleet and improving our Army, desire is to show to the world the peoples of this Continent learning to love and defend its inviolability and independence in the surroundings of peace and common interests.
I am about to make known through our representatives in the other Republics of America, that the Government through the Ministry of Justice, following what was done a long time ago with respect to the obligatory study of English, is beginning this year, in its principal teaching establishment — the College of Pedro II — a course of Spanish and of Hispano-American literature, free admittance to the lists in our Academies being granted to all young men of the other Republics who have passed their official courses of instruction.
The notion of the President of the Republic in co-operating to bring about the development of this policy of American formation and solidarity in letters and arms, will bear witness to the generations who will have to-morrow the responsibility of the Government of America, that the generations of to-day knew how to maintain it in face of the greatest war of history.
I^n^ BRAZILIAN aniEEN BOOK 115
and that in this way it will be maintained always as a shelter for men and ideas endangered at any time in the struggles of the Old World.
I have the honour to reiterate to Your Excellency the assur- ance of my high esteem and most distinguished consideration.
Nilo Peganha. His Excellency, Marshal Josi Caetano de Parian Minister of State for War AfiEairs.
In the same terms mutatis mutandis and on the same date another note was sent to the Ministry of the Navy under No. 9.
The Ministers of War and the Navy agreed to the suggested measure in the above transcribed note from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and declared that their schools would be opened to further hsts under the indicated conditions.
In accordance with these replies the necessary communications were made to our Legations in America and to the Legations of the American Nations in this city.
PERMANENT INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC COM- MITTEE AT PARIS
TELEGRAM FROM OUR LEGATION IN PARIS TO THE BRAZILIAN GOVERNMENT
January 21, 19 18. The Minister of Blockade begs me in a note to request the Brazilian Government to send one or two Delegates from Brazil to take part in the labours of the Permanent Inter- national Economic Committee at Paris created by the First Inter-Allied Conference of March 1916.
Olyntho de Magalhaes.
TELEGRAM FROM THE BRAZILIAN GOVERNMENT TO OUR LEGATION IN PARIS
January 26, 1918. The Government would be glad if Your Excellency would continue to represent Brazil in the Inter-Allied Congresses or Committees held there.
Nilo Beganha,
116 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOR
TELEGRAM FROM OUR LEGATION IN PARIS TO THE BRAZILIAN GOVERNMENT
February 23, 191 8.
I took part to-day in the first deliberations of the Permanent International Economic Committee, as the Brazilian Delegate, and was welcomed very cordially by the President, whom I thanked.
I beg Your Excellency will be good enough to inform me, so that I may answer the Secretariat General of the Committee, of all the measures taken by our Government with reference to the prohibition of the exports of good, of the list of contra- band of war, and other prohibitions placed upon the enemy.
Olyntho de Magalhaes,
TELEGRAM FROM THE BRAZILIAN GOVERNMENT TO OUR LEGATION IN PARIS
February 26, 19 18.
Your Excellency may tell the Committee that our war legis- lation prohibits the Germans all foreign commerce, either by import or export ; Brazilian ships do not carry enemy cargo ; the Custom House takes over all goods of enemy destination carried in neutral ships. The law also forbids the dispatch of funds abroad, and cancels all contracts concluded with Germans for public works and services ; and, also, with respect to the future of the country, forbids the grant of territory to them, as well as other measures of reprisal and national defence.
As Your Excellency sees, our war legislation follows the general lines of the legislation of other countries, save that Brazil has not confiscated enemy property nor taken over German internal trade, which is also maintained in the United States, and which, if we suppressed it here, would oblige us to feed and clothe thousands of men, besides those who already are causing us expense in the concentration camps of Friburgo and Iguassu.
Nilo Peganha.
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 117
PEACE PROPOSAL OF HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XV
ORIGINAL OF THE PROPOSAL SENT TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC
\Text in French.]
To THE Heads of the Belligerent Peoples,
Since the beginning of our Pontificate, amid the horrors of the terrible war let loose on Europe, we have kept in mind three things above all : to maintain perfect impar- tiality towards all the belligerents, as becomes him who is the common father and who loves with equal affection all his children ; to strive constantly to do all the greatest possible good, without exception of persons, without distinction of nationality or reUgion, as is enjoined upon us both by the Universal Law of charity and by the supreme spiritual charge confided to us by Christ ; finally, as our pacifying mission equally requires, to omit nothing, as far as might be in our power, that could help to hasten the end of this calamity, by essaying to bring the peoples and their Heads to more moderate coiinsels, and to the serene deliberations of peace — a peace ** just and lasting."
Whoever has followed our work during the three sad years just elapsed has been able easily to recognize that, if we have been ever-faithful to our resolve of absolute impartiaUty and to our beneficent action, we have never ceased to exhort the belligerent peoples and Governments to resume their brother- hood, even though all that we have done to achieve this most noble aim has not been made public.
Towards the end of the first year of the war we addressed to the nations in conflict the Hveliest exhortations, and pointed out, moreover, the path along which a peace, stable and honour- able for all, might be attained. Unfortunately our appeal was not heeded, and the war went on desperately, with all its horrors, for another two years ; it even became more cruel, and spread on land, on sea — ^nay, in the very air ; upon defenceless cities, quiet villages, and their innocent inhabitants, desolation and deaXh were seen to fall. And now none can imagine how tjie
118 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
sufferings of all would be increased and intensified were yet other months, or, still worse, other years, added to this bloody triennium. Shall then the civilized world be naught but a field of death ? And shall Europe, so glorious and flourishing, rush, as though driven by universal madness, towards the abyss, and lend her hand to her own suicide ?
In a situation so fraught with anguish, in the presence of so grave a peril, we, who have no special poUtical aim, who heed neither the suggestions nor the interests of either of the bel- ligerent parties, but are impelled solely by the feeUng of our supreme duty as the common father of the faithful, by the prayers of our children, who implore from us intervention and a word of peace ; by the very voice of humanity and of reason, we raise again a cry of peace, and renew a pressing appeal to those in whose hands lie the destinies of nations. But in order no longer to confine ourselves to general terms, such as were coun- selled by circumstances in the past, we desire now to come down to more concrete and practical proposals, and to invite the Governments of the belligerent peoples to agree upon the follow- ing points, which seem as though they ought to be the bases of a just and lasting peace, leaving to their charge the comple- tion and the more precise definition of those points.
First, the fundamental point should be that the moral force of right should replace the material force of arms ; hence a just agreement between all for the simultaneous and reciprocal diminution of armaments, according to rules and guarantees to be estabHshed, to the extent necessary and sufficient for the maintenance of public order in each State ; then, in the place of armies, the establishment of arbitration with its exalted pacifying function, on lines to be concerted and with sanctions to be settled against any State that should refuse either to submit international questions to arbitration or to accept its awards.
The supremacy of right once established, let every obstacle be removed from the channels of communication between peoples, by ensuring, under rules likewise to be laid down, the true freedom and common enjoyment of the seas. This would, on the one hand, remove manifold causes of conflict, and would open, on the other, fresh sources of prosperity and progress to aU.
As to the reparation of damage and to the costs of war, we see no way to solve the question save by laying down as a general principle, complete and reciprocal condonation, which would, moreover, be justified by the immense benefits that would accrue froni disannan^ent ; £^11 the more, since tl^e con-
TEE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 119
tinuation of such carnage solely for economic reasons would be incomprehensible. If, in certain cases, there exists, never- theless, special reasons, let them be weighed with justice and equity.
But these pacific agreements, with the immense advantages they entail, are impossible without the reciprocal restitution of territories now occupied. Consequently on the part of Germany there must be the complete evacuation of Belgium, with a guarantee of her full poHtical, miUtary, and economic independence towards all Powers whatsoever ; likewise the evacuation of French territory. On the part of the other belligerent parties, there must be a similar restitution of the German colonies.
As regards territorial questions like those at issue between Italy and Austria, and between Germany and France, there is reason to hope that in consideration of the immense advan- tages of a lasting peace with disarmament, the parties in conflict will examine them in a conciliatory spirit, taking account, in the measure of what is just and possible, as we have before said, of the aspirations of the peoples and, as occasion may offer, co-ordinating particular interests with the general weal of the great human society.
The same spirit of equity and justice must reign in the study of the other territorial and political questions, notably those relating to Armenia, the Balkan States, and to the territories forming part of the ancient Kingdom of Poland, to which, in particular, its noble historical traditions and the sufferings endured, especially during the present war, ought justly to assure the sympathies of nations.
Such are the principal bases upon which we beUeve the future reorganization of peoples should be founded. They are such as to render impossible a return of similar conflicts, and to prepare the solution of the economic question, so important for the future and the material welfare of all the belligerent States. Therefore, in laying them before you, who guide at this tragic hour the destinies of the beUigerent nations, we are inspired by a sweet hope — the hope of seeing them accepted, and thus of seeing ended at the earUest moment the terrible struggle that appears increasingly a useless massacre. Every one recognizes, moreover, that on the one side and on the other, the honour of arms is safe. Lend, therefore, your ear to our prayer, accept the paternal invitation that we address to you in the name of the Divine Redeemer, the Prince of Peace. Think of your very heavy responsibiUty before God and men ;
120 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
upon your resolves depend the repose and the joy of innumerable famiHes, the life of thousands of youths, in a word, the happiness of the peoples to whom it is your absolute duty to assure these boons. May the Lord inspire in you decisions in accord with His most holy will. May Heaven grant that, in deserving the plaudits of your contemporaries, you will gain also for your- selves the name of peacemakers among future generations.
As for us, closely united in prayer and penitence with all faithful souls who sigh for peace, we pray that the Divine Spirit grant you light and counsel.
(L.S.) Benedictus XV.
From the Vatican, August i, 191 7.
BRAZIL'S REPLY TO HIS HOLINESS'S LETTER, THROUGH OUR LEGATION AT THE VATICAN
November 13, 191 7.
Brazilian Minister, Rome.
Your Excellency will say in your note to His Holiness that the President of the Republic had not authorized you before to reply to his proposal of peace for the reason that it is not until the present moment that Brazil has found herself in a state of war.
Brazil is a nation that has never embarked upon a war of conquest ; which has written down compulsory arbitration as one of the articles of its Republican Constitution for the settle- ment of foreign disagreements ; which has endured no sufferings in the past, and has therefore no vengeance to seek in the present ; which has quietly settled all its boundary questions, knowing what belongs to it as its own property and recognizing the exact possible extension of its territory, which is great already, and keeps growing greater, thanks not only to the work of its citizens, who are anxious to prove that they deserve the honour of possessing so rich an inheritance, but also thanks to the work of those foreigners whom our hospitable shores soon make as true Brazilians as ourselves. Brazil, Your Excellency can tell His Holiness, would have kept apart from the European war, in spite of the sympathy of public opinion here for the cause of freedom of the Allies, had not Germany extended to America her violent acts of war, hindering the commerce of all neutral nations with the outside world.
Brazil coiild not fail in her obvious duty gs an An^erican
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK 121
Nation ; and in taking up, as a last resort, the position of a belligerent, we have done so without hatred or interest, but solely for the defence of our flag and the fundamental rights of our Fatherland ; happily, to-day all the RepubUcs of the New World, some more injured than others, but all threatened in their liberty and their sovereign rights, have drawn more closely together the bonds of a solidarity that was already geographical, economic, and historical, and which the senti- ment of common defence and of national independence is making political.
Brazil, therefore, cannot to-day take up an attitude of isolation, nor can she speak as an individual, seeing the solidar- ity that ought to exist, and does exist, between her and the nations to whom she has joined herself.
Nevertheless, there was not a Brazilian heart that did not hear with the liveliest emotion the eloquent appeal of His Holiness asking the belligerent nations for peace in the name of God. Although Brazil, in her State capacity, cannot be considered as the seat of any one form of religion, seeing that all religions there are free and protected, none the less it can claim to be the third Catholic nation in the world, and to have had uninterrupted relations almost for centuries with the government of the Church. Brazil recognizes the generous feelings that prompted the appeal of His Holiness when he demanded, " together with disarmament and arbitration, the setting up of a regime in which the material force of armies should be replaced by the moral force of justice, when once the territorial claims of France and Italy had been arranged, and due consideration paid to the problems of the Balkans and the restoration of Polish liberty."
It is for the peoples who are most directly concerned in these questions to say whether the honour of their arms is already satisfied in this war, or whether the suggested changes in the political map of Europe can assure them peace so long as the political and military organization remains in power, which has everywhere abrogated the laws of justice, brought to nothing those advances that the spirit of humanity had deemed lasting for the alleviation of the cruelties of war, and destroyed everyr thing that Christian feeling had given to the fellowship of nations.
It is for them alone to say whether, now that all trust in treaties and international loyalty is gone, there will be a force, if not a new spirit, capable of making a secure peace, unless from the disillusions, sufferings, and misfortunes of this war
122 THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
there may, perhaps, arise a better world bom, it would seem, of liberty itself.
Only thus can we hope to establish a durable peace without poUtical or economic restrictions, so that all the nations, great or small, should have their place in the sun, with equal rights of exchanging their ideas, exchanging their work and their merchandise, on the wide basis of justice and equity.
Please present to His Holiness the assurance of the profound veneration of the President of the Republic.
Nilo Peganha,
The terms of this reply were confirmed in a letter from the Chancery, subsequently sent by the President of the Republic directly to His Holiness.
INDEX OF NAMES
Aguero, E. de la Riva,
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Peru, June 191 7
Alcorforado, Alfredo Carlos, Brazilian Minister to Cuba
DE Alencar, Augusto C, Brazilian Minister to Peru
Alvarado, Juan,
Spanish M nister of State, April 1917
Alves de Araujo, H.,
Brazilian Minister to Denmark
do Amaral, Luis G.,
Brazilian Charg6 d'AfEaires in Chile, June 12, 1917
do Amaral, S. Gurgel,
Brazilian Minister to Germany
Andrade, Ignacio,
Minister for Foreign AflFairs, Venezuela
DE AZEREDO, CaRLOS MAGALHAES,
Brazilian Minister to the Vatican
DE AZEVEDO, CyRO,
Brazilian Minister to Uruguay
Barthou, Louis,
French Minister for Foreign Affairs, November 191 7
Benedictus XV,
Pope Benson, Alexander,
United States Charg6 d 'Affaires in Brazil, February 5
Bernardez, Manuel,
Uruguayan Minister tp Brazil
Bezerra Calvacanti, Josfi Ru-
FINO,
Minister of Agriculture, Brazil, resigned 191 7
BoRGEs, Cesar,
Brazilian Charg6 d'AfEaires in Norway
Braz, Wenceslau Braz P. Gomes, President of the Republic of the United States of Brazil, 19 14- 18
Brum, Baltazar,
Minister for Foreign Affairs of Uruguay
Caetano DE Faria, Marshal JosI;, Brazilian Minister of War Affairs
Cardoso,
Brazilian Minister to Chile
Cardoso de Oliveira, Jose Manuel, Brazilian Minister to Paraguay
Carlos Ribeiro de Andrada, Antonio, Brazilian Minister of Finance
Carrasco, Jos^,
Bolivian Minister in Brazil
DE Carvalho, Frederic© Af-
FONSO,
Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs, Brazil, August 19 14
Cecil, Lord Robert,
British Minister of Block?idf
m
124
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
Chatelain,
Minister for Foreign Affairs of Haiti, June 191 7
Chermont, E. L.,
Brazilian Minister to Japan Claudel, p.
French Minister to Brazil
da Cunha, Gastao,
Brazilian Ambassador to Por- tugal
Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs, March 19 16
Dantas, L. M. de Souza,
Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs, Brazil, August 1916
Desvernine, Pablo,
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Cuba
DupuY, E.,
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Haiti, July 1917
Faria de Alencar, Admiral Alexandrino, Brazilian Minister of the Navy
Fernandes Pinheiro, LL.,
Director-General of Economic and Consular Affairs, Min- istry for Foreign Affairs, Brazil
DA Fonseca, Marshal Hermes R.,
President of the Republic of the
United States of Brazil, 1910-
14
da Fontoura Xavier, Antonio,
Brazilian Minister to Great
Britain
DA Gama, Domicio,
Brazilian Ambassador to the United States
Gasparri, p. Cardinal,
Secretary of State to the Holy See
Garay, Narciso,
Secretary fqr ^''oreign Affairs, Panaraii
Gomes, Wenceslau Braz P. Gomes, see Braz
GONDRA, M.
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Paraguay
HUIDOBRO, A.,
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Chile, June 191 7
Ihlen,
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Norway
Irarrazaval, a.,
Chilian Minister to Brazil
Kelsch, G. de Vianna,
Brazilian Charge d'Affaires in Russia, June 11, 191 7
DE Lara, Carlos,
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Costa Rica
DE Lima e Silva, Rinaldo, Brazilian Minister to Bolivia
LoRETi DA Silva Lima, Jarbas, BraziUan Chargd d'Affaires in Ecuador, June 191 7
Loudon,
Dutch Minister for Foreign Affairs
Machado, Bernardino,
President of the Portuguese Re- pubUc : exiled after the Revo- lution of December 191 7
DE Magalhaes, Olyntho, Brazilian Minister to France
Maximiliano Pereira DOS Santos, Carlos, Brazilian Minister of Interior
Mezera, Rodolfo,
Minister of Justice and Public Instruction, Uruguay
Morgan, Edwin Vernon,
United States Ambassador to frazil
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
125
MoTONO, Viscount Itchiro, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Japan
MuLLER, Lauro, General,
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Brazil : succeeded Rio Branco resigned May 3, 1917 : suc- ceeded by Nilo Pe9anha
Obermijller, Louis Jean Charles VON Zeppelin, Dutch Minister in Brazil
PandiX Calogeras, Joao. Brazilian Minister of Finance : resigned September 191 7 : suc- ceeded by Antonio Carlos
Fault, A., German Minister to Brazil
PK9ANHA, Alcibiades,
Bra?;ilian Minister to Spain,
April 29, 1917 Transferred to Argentina, June
1917
Pe^anha, Nilo,
Brazilian Minister for Foreign Affairs : succeeded Lauro Miiller May 5, 191 7
Peel, Sir Arthur Robert, K.C.MG., British Minister to Brazil
PoincarjS, Raymond, President of the French Republic
Polk, Frank L, Acting United States Secretary of State, June 16, 191 7
Pueyrredon, Honorio,
Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs : actually holding the portfolio of Agriculture, Argen- tina
Ramos, Eduardo,
Brazilian Charg6 d Affaires in Argentina, June 11, 191 7
Ribot, Alexandre,
French Minister for Foreign Affairs, September 191 7
Rivas, Santiago, Minister of Public Works, Uru- guay
de Rostaing Lisboa, Carlos, Ad interim Brazilian Charg6 d 'Affaires in Venezuela
SXnchez, Placido, Minister for Foreign Affairs, BoUvia, June 191 7
Sanchez Fuentes, A
Ad interim Charg6 d' Affaires oi Mexico in Brazil, June 1917
ScAVENius, Erik, Minister for Foreign Affairs* Denmark
Serrate, Luis Toledo.
Guatemala Minster for Foreign Affairs
Scares. Augusto,
Portuguese Minister for Foreign Affairs, June 191 7
SoNNiNo, Baron Sidney, Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs
SuAREZ, Marco Fidel,
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Colombia
SuAREZ MujicA, Eduardo,
Chilian Minister for Foreign Affairs in the Yanez Cabinet, 1917
Tavares de Lyra, Augusto Brazilian Minister of Commerce and Public Works
Terestchenko, Michel,
Minister for Foreign Affairs in the Russian Provisional Govern- ment
ToBAR y Borgono, Carlos, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ecuador
Toledo, Pedro de,
Brazilian Minister to Italy
126
THE BRAZILIAN GREEN BOOK
TUDELA Y VaRELA, FrANCISCO,
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Pern, October 19 17
Urtecho, J. A., Minister for Foreign Affairs, Nicaragua
Varzi, Pablo,
Minister of the Interior, Uruguay Vasquez, Marino,
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Honduras
ViDIELLA, FeDERICO R.,
Minister of Finance, Uruguay
Viera, Francisco,
President of Uruguay, elected 1915
Whitmarsh, Calixto,
Cuban Charge d'Affaires ad in- terim in Brazi!
Wilson, Woodrow,
President of the United States of America. 1912-20
ZlMMERMANN, A.,
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, German Empire, Feb- ruary 19 1 7
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