The Secretary of State to the Italian Ambassador.
Washington , April 11, 1907 .
Excellency: I have had the honor to receive and give careful attention to your note of the 5th instant, in relation to bringing the question of armaments before the approaching conference at The Hague.
It may be safely assumed that the instructions upon which your note was based were given before your Government had cognizance of the Russian circular note of March 22 / April 4, by which the assent of the contracting Hague powers to the Russian tentative programme, and the proposals and reservations as to certain features thereof made by some of those powers, were communicated to the powers invited to take part in the Second Hague Conference. On that assumption I can regard your note as setting forth the proposals and reservations of your Government which, if earlier made known, would doubtless have been stated in the Russian note of April 4. I would not be justified in regarding it as a proposal, at this late day, to set aside all that had been accomplished up to the date of the Russian note, and to invite further discussion among the contracting Hague powers looking to an agreement to limit or forestall the treatment of the matter in question, in advance of the assembling of the Second Hague Conference, to which conference the Russian note relegates the consideration and disposal of the propositions and reservations made by the several powers. I therefore conclude that the present Italian proposition is intended to stand on the same footing as the proposals and reservations notified in the Russian circular of April 4, and to be relegated with them to the conference itself.
With regard to the five proposals set forth in your note, I may observe:
- 1.
- This point has been anticipated, previous notice of intention to bring forward the question of the reduction of armaments having been already given by the United States, Spain, and Great Britain and been communicated to the participating powers by the Russian note.
- 2.
- In giving such notification, it is conceived that an appropriate course has been followed in limiting the notice to a general statement of the nature of the question to be brought forward, thus following both the form and the analogy of the accepted Russian programme, in which the enumeration of subjects is made in general terms without attempt to formulate concrete proposals. The appropriateness of this course is recognized by the Russian note itself, which admits the still more général proposal of Bolivia, Denmark, Greece, Japan, and the Netherlands to bring before the conference additional subjects analogous to those mentioned in the Russian programme.
- 3, 4, and 5.
- This Government does not deem it practicable for the participants to attempt to agree in advance upon a definition of the line of parliamentary treatment of such proposals when brought before the conference. These three propositions of Signor Tittoni would appear to be peculiarly appropriate for consideration by the conference through the action of a committee. The proposition to refer the subject of armaments to a select committee has been heretofore brought to my attention, and I have expressed my view that it would be a practical form of action by the conference itself. That body would obviously be short of one of the essential attributes of deliberative assemblies were its course and conclusions to be prescribed in advance by understandings reached between individual powers taking part in its deliberations. It is to be observed that Signor Tittoni’s proposals are conditioned upon the British proposal encountering difficulties. That apprehension has fortunately not been realized, inasmuch as the British proposal has been incorporated without change in the notification to the participant powers made by the Russian note of April 4. If, in the bosom of the conference, difficulties in the matter of its treatment should arise, the proposals of Signor Tittoni could with entire appropriateness be brought forward for consideration and determination by that body, and the Government of the United States would offer no objection to such a course, and, indeed, would feel at liberty to bring forward counter proposals to a like end, if occasion offered.
In conclusion, I have pleasure in expressing gratification that this incident has so strikingly evinced the earnest desire of the Italian Government that every effort shall be made by the participating powers to contribute to the harmonious and effective treatment of all matters germane to the high purposes for which the Second Hague Conference has been convoked.
Be pleased to accept, etc.,