The intimate papers of Colonel House arranged as a narrative by Charles Seymour.

212 INTIMATE PAPERS OF COLONEL HOUSE

States and would transform the Monroe Doctrine from a
protective assurance on the part of one state into a mutual
covenant. Whether or not a Pan-American Pact of the kind
he suggested would prove an effective guaranty of peace
might be doubtful; but it would certainly eliminate the
implication of inferiority which South America deduced
from the traditional form of the Monroe Doctrine. To
secure such moral advantages, however, the South American
States must renounce all aggressive designs. Would they
prove equal to the opportunity offered them? The plan
assumed also that the smaller Latin-American States had
attained a degree of political stability which would permit
them to maintain the promises which they made. The
assumption was at least questionable.
'December 19, 1914: Justice Lamar telephoned that the
Argentine Ambassador was back. I made an engagement
with him at half-past eleven. I hurriedly gathered together
what data I could get concerning Argentina and upon Naon
himself. When the Justice introduced me, he excused himself for a moment and took Naon aside to inform him how
thoroughly I represented the President. He then took his
leave.
'I began the conversation by complimenting Naon upon
the advanced thought in his country, particularly in regard
to penal reform. I considered the Argentine fifty or one
hundred years ahead of Europe and the United States in
that direction. I marvelled at the statesmanship that saw
as long ago as 1864, when they had their war with Uruguay,
that a victorious nation had no moral right to despoil the
territory of the vanquished. After I had made these few
remarks, I had fertile soil upon which to sow the seeds of my
argument.
'Naon took the typewritten memorandum which the
President had given me and warmly approved both sen