The Hemisphere: After the Vote

High point of the Tenth Inter-American Conference at Caracas was unquestionably the battle over the U.S. resolution for joint action to stop Communist infiltration in the hemisphere. Even after the U.S. had carried the day, and Secretary John Foster Dulles had returned to Washington, the conference kept on talking about it. One morning last week delegates rose one after another to offer "explanations" of their votes. Several sounded almost as though they were feeling pangs of conscience for having supported the resolution.

Said Uruguay's Justino de Arechaga: "We voted for the resolution, but without joy." Delegates from Argentina and Mexico, who abstained, felt that the declaration "weakens the principle of nonintervention." Even those who had warmly supported the U.S. resolution in the debate privately expressed misgivings.

At one such breast-beating session Henry Holland, the U.S.'s new Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American affairs, finally managed to get a laugh from the glum Latins. Their responsibility, he reminded them, was not very different from that of the suitor who was asked by his beloved's father whether his intentions were honorable or dishonorable, and countered: "Do I have a choice?"

Last week the delegates also: ¶ Adopted an Argentine resolution calling for an end to colonial possessions in the Caribbean and South America. The U.S. abstained, arguing that the issue should properly be taken up in the United Nations, where the colonial powers—Britain, France and The Netherlands—are represented.

¶ Condemned racial discrimination and called for laws to end it. 1$ Decided to hold a full-dress conference on hemisphere economic problems in Rio (rather than Washington) next fall. Debated questions of human rights, the right of asylum, and revision of the Bogota pact for obligatory settlement of inter-American disputes, and agreed to act on all items in time to adjourn next week.