504.418B1/199
The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Belgium ( Morris )5
Sir: At the Seventh International Conference of American States held at Montevideo, Uruguay, from December 3 to 26, 1933, a resolution was adopted referring to the Roerich Pact of which the pertinent portion is quoted below:
“3. To recommend to the Governments of America which have not yet done so that they sign the ‘Roerich Pact’, initiated by the Roerich Museum in the United States, and which has as its object, the universal adoption of a flag, already designed and generally known, in order thereby to preserve in any time of danger all nationally and privately owned immovable monuments which form the cultural treasure of peoples.”
As a result of this resolution, the Governing Board of the Pan American Union drew up and approved a Convention on the Roerich Pact of which a copy in its English text is enclosed.
The Government of the United States became a party to this Convention and the President invested the Honorable Henry A. Wallace, Secretary of Agriculture, with full powers to sign the instrument on behalf of the Government of the United States. The Convention was signed at the White House on April 15 in the presence of President [Page 504] Roosevelt by the plenipotentiaries of the twenty-one American Republics.
As of April 16, 1935, the Roerich Pact has been open to signature by all nations of the world. The Pan American Union, which is the depository of the Convention, will no doubt take steps to invite the Government to which you are accredited to adhere to this Pact.
In view of the foregoing, the Department is desirous of learning what may be the attitude toward the Convention of the foreign governments not represented by delegates at the Montevideo Conference. You are requested, therefore, to inquire orally at the Foreign Office of the Government to which you are accredited the view with which that Government is disposed to regard this Convention.
Very truly yours,
- Identic instructions were sent on the same date to the Embassies in the United Kingdom (No. 938), France (No. 997), Germany (No. 464), Spain (No. 264), Italy (No. 523), and to the Legation in the Netherlands (No. 168).↩