893.113/289
The British Ambassador (Geddes) to the Secretary of State
His Britannic Majesty’s Ambassador presents his compliments to the Secretary of State and has the honour, on instructions from his Government, to inform Mr. Hughes that the question of the embargo on the import of arms and munitions of war into China has recently been receiving their serious consideration. It will be remembered that the British Empire Delegation, at the recent Conference in Washington, made a determined effort to improve the present unsatisfactory situation in regard to the China Arms Embargo by obtaining a reaffirmation of the 1919 Embargo by the Powers represented at the Conference on Pacific and Far Eastern Affairs.
It need hardly be pointed out that in the present state of China the maintenance of the embargo is more than ever desirable, but recent instances of failure to carry out the policy in the spirit if not in the letter, naturally make it difficult for His Majesty’s Government to insist on the strict observance of the embargo policy by British nationals. It appears therefore to His Majesty’s Government very important that the embargo of 1919 should now be reaffirmed by the Powers who were parties thereto, and that it should at the same time be more precisely defined and widened, so as to include materials and tools destined directly or indirectly for the manufacture of arms or munitions of war, arsenal equipment, and personnel to supervise or assist in the use or manufacture of such arms and munitions and the training of such personnel.
[Page 732]The matter was considered to be of such importance that negotiations to achieve the desired result were undertaken by the Earl of Balfour at Washington, but the Italian representatives were at that time unable to depart from a reservation, made originally by the Italian Government at the time when they adhered to the embargo notification of 1919, to the effect that contracts concluded prior to their adherence should be excluded. The negotiations had therefore to be suspended, but it now appears that the Italian Government have adopted a more favourable attitude towards this question.
In the opinion of His Majesty’s Government the best course now appears for the question to be taken up at Peking and His Majesty’s Representative there has accordingly been instructed to initiate discussions with his colleagues with a view to the framing of a recommendation, which should if possible be unanimous, as to the steps to be taken to place the existing embargo on a more satisfactory footing.
As Mr. Hughes is aware, the Governments whose names were included in the notification made by the doyen of the Diplomatic Body at Peking to the Chinese Government on the 5th of May, 1919, as having agreed to an arms embargo, or who subsequently adhered to the arrangement, are: Great Britain, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, France, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain and the United States. Of these, Belgium, The Netherlands, Japan and the United States have already signified their readiness to reaffirm the embargo in the form of the Earl of Balfour’s draft resolution introduced before the Committee for Pacific and Far Eastern Affairs on the 31st of January, 1922, provided the Italian reservation regarding contracts already concluded prior to the original imposition of the embargo is withdrawn. The Japanese Minister at Peking appears anxious to go even further and to strengthen the embargo.
Sir Auckland Geddes ventures to bring these considerations to the attention of Mr. Hughes in the hope that he may be disposed to issue instructions to the United States Representative at Peking to cooperate with His Majesty’s Representative in a comprehensive review of the present unsatisfactory position in order that any steps which may be desirable or possible to remedy it should be taken without delay.