893.113/348
The Department of State to the British Embassy
Aide Memoire
The Department of State has received from the British Embassy an Aide Memoire dated September 15, 1922, with reference to the amended resolution submitted at the Conference on the Limitation of Armament regarding the export to China of arms and munitions of war.
The memorandum dated June 23, 1922, which was sent to the British Embassy,81 gives in detail the various steps taken by this Government in connection with efforts to have the above mentioned resolution formally adopted by the various Governments concerned. Since the above memorandum was written, however, the Department has sent a telegram to the American Minister at Peking82 giving him, for his information, the substance of the two notes received from the British Government on the subject of the Arms Embargo and instructing the Minister to discuss with his interested colleagues the proposals made by the British Government. The American Minister was also instructed to bear in mind, in connection with these discussions, the limited terms of the statute of the American law which prohibits only the exportation to China of “arms and munitions of war” and the difficulty and perhaps improbability of obtaining further legislation.
[Page 742]On September 2 the Department of State inquired of the American Minister at Peking, by telegraph,83 what action, if any, had been taken by the Diplomatic Body in connection with the proposals of the British Government above mentioned, and on September 6 a reply was received83 stating that owing to the absence from Peking of many chiefs of missions no meetings of the Diplomatic Body had been held since the receipt of the Department’s instructions to the Minister to discuss with the Diplomatic Body the desires of the British Government to make more effective the Arms Embargo. Minister Schurman, in his telegram, also stated that arrangements were being made for a meeting of the Diplomatic Body at an early date at which time this subject would be discussed.