500.A4/102: Telegram
The Chargé in Great Britain (Wheeler) to the Secretary of State
[Received 8:24 p.m.]
660. For the Secretary State, sent by instructions of the Ambassador. A summary of the transaction of the Prime Ministers and representatives of the United Kingdom, the Dominions, and published yesterday, after reciting the statement of Lloyd George in the House of Commons July 11th (see Hansard65) contains the following:
“In accordance with the suggestion which was believed to have been made by the American Government that the conference on disarmament should be preceded by friendly conversations or consultation between the powers who were principally concerned in the future of the Far East and the Pacific, the Imperial Conference anxious that for the Anglo-Japanese agreement should be substituted some larger arrangement between the three great powers concerned, namely the United States of America, Japan and Great Britain, and holding the firm conviction that the later discussions on disarmament to which they attached a transcendent importance could best be made effective by a previous mutual understanding on Pacific questions between those powers devoted many hours of examination to the question how such an understanding could best be arrived at, where the proposed conversations could best be held, in what manner the representatives of the British Dominions who were so vitally affected could most easily participate in them, and upon what broad principles of policy it was desirable to proceed. It was difficult for the Dominion Prime Ministers owing to the exigencies of time and space to attend at Washington late in the autumn. On the other hand advantage might be taken of their presence in England to exchange views with representatives of the [Page 54] other great powers who had been invited to Washington later. It was in these circumstances that the idea was mooted that the preliminary conversations or consultations to which the American Government had in principle agreed should be held in London. When it transpired a little later that there was the misunderstanding as to the nature of the preliminary conversations which had been suggested, the British Government, in the earnest desire to remove any possible misconception and to meet what they believed to be the American views, at each stage of the impending discussion, volunteered to attend a meeting on the other side of the Atlantic, at which the agenda of the forthcoming conference at Washington could be discussed, and a friendly interchange of views take place in order to facilitate the work of the main conference later. The British Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary together with the Dominion Prime Ministers were prepared to attend such a meeting if invited to do so by the American Government.
The Japanese Government signified their willingness if invited to take part in the suggested conversations.
The American Government however did not favor the idea which was accordingly dropped.
This conclusion was viewed with the utmost regret by the members of the Imperial Conference, who had devoted much time to the working out of arrangement which they understood would be equally acceptable to all parties and the abandonment of which, they feared, could not be otherwise than prejudicial to the great objects which all had in view. At no time had it been suggested that the results of such a conference as was contemplated should either anticipate the work or tie the hands of the Washington conference at a later date. On the contrary, holding as they do the firm belief that without a Pacific understanding the conference on disarmament will find it less easy to attain the supreme results which are hoped for by all, the Imperial Conference made the proposal before referred to, anxious to remove every possible obstacle from the path of the Washington meeting, which they desire to see attended with complete and triumphant success.”
- 144 H. C. Deb. 5s. 914.↩