500.A4/451a
The Secretary of State to President Harding
My Dear Mr. President: I cabled yesterday directing informal inquiries to be made in London, Paris, Rome and Tokio to ascertain whether it would be agreeable to the respective governments “to be invited by this Government to participate in a conference on limitation of armament, the conference to be held in Washington at a mutually convenient time.”25 To each government it was stated that those expected to participate were the United States, Great Britain, France, Italy and Japan, and the desire was expressed that the matter should be held in confidence until the invitation was issued.
[Page 22]You will have observed that I referred to “the limitation of armament,” without limiting the description to naval armament. My thought was that if it was desired later to make such a limitation it could readily be accomplished, but that we had interests … which might make it desirable to include other armament than that which is distinctively naval. If, however, for any reason you desire that I should limit the suggestion to a conference with respect to naval armament, will you kindly let me know and I can readily modify the suggestion?
The French Ambassador is coming in at eleven o’clock this morning. Could you arrange to have Mr. Christian26 telephone me in case you wish any modification?
Faithfully yours,