. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[Enclosure—Translation70]
The Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs
(Unden)
to the American Chargé (Gittings)
Stockholm, November 26,
1924.
Mr. Chargé d’Affaires: In a letter of
November 6, 1923,68
Mr. Cord Meyer, then Chargé d’Affaires ad interim of the United
States, was good enough to inform the Minister for Foreign Affairs
that the Government of the United States had notified its Peking
representative of its acceptance of the resolutions discussed by the
diplomatic corps in Peking in a meeting held on October 3, 1922,
concerning the embargo on the export of arms and munitions destined
for China. These recommendations were based, according to the letter
in question, on the adhesion of the powers represented in Peking to
the amended project of the resolution on this subject presented on
January 31, 1922, to the Washington Conference, and to a more
extensive
[Page 539]
interpretative
formula of this project of which the letter contained the text.
At the same time Mr. Cord Meyer expressed the hope of his Government
that the Swedish Government would find itself in a position to give
to its representative in Peking instructions in the same sense.
The question having been subjected to a thorough study, I find myself
to-day able to communicate to you the following:
The Swedish Government is fully convinced of the extreme importance
of the reestablishment in China of a normal situation, and is
willing to believe that measures having for their object the
effective prevention of the importation of arms and munitions into
that country cannot fail to contribute to that end. It will
therefore not refuse, on condition that all the interested powers do
likewise, to adhere in equal degree to the aforementioned project of
resolution, presented to the Washington Conference. It is also
disposed, subject to the same condition, to join in the
recommendation adopted on February 9, 1923,71 by the Chiefs of Mission
at Peking, which has for its object extending the projected
resolution aforementioned to cover aircraft other than commercial
aircraft.
As to the far greater extension of the prohibition of export set
forth in the meeting of October 3, 1922, this would not be in
accordance with the dispositions of Swedish law and so the Swedish
Government does not find itself in a position to acquiesce therein.
It would, moreover, feel itself less warranted in doing so in view
of the fact that the reports concerning the deliberations of
Washington and Peking and information received from still other
sources scarcely permit a full reliance on a general adhesion to
such an extension by the powers concerned.
The Swedish Government, at this juncture, permits itself to call your
attention to the fact that an additional conference, summoned for
the purpose of studying the question, is about to meet in Geneva
next year. And it wonders, inasmuch as the prohibition of export of
arms and munitions to China does not seem on the whole to have had
the desired efficacy up to the present, whether it would not be
better to submit the question in hand for study by that
conference.
Pray accept [etc.]
