740.0011 Mutual Guarantee (Locarno)
/27
The Chargé in Great Britain (Sterling) to the Secretary of
State
London, March 16,
1925.
[Received March 25 (?).]
My Dear Mr. Secretary: In connection with my
telegram No. 98, March 14, 1 p.m.,32 I beg to enclose a copy, in translation, of the
memorandum of January 20, 1925, which the German Government handed to
the governments of Great Britain, France, Italy and Belgium on the
subject of a security pact.33 I also
enclose a copy of a letter which Mr. Dufour, Counselor of the German
Embassy, handed to me today32 commenting upon the memorandum in question.
The manner in which I obtained the memorandum was as follows. Recently,
having occasion to speak upon other subjects with Dufour, I asked him
if, as a matter of information, he could properly give me the text of
the proposals put forward by the German Government for a security pact,
concerning which there had been so much publicity.
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I told him that I would like the text to
forward to you and that it would be given the most confidential
treatment, making it clear to him that I was under no instructions from
my Government and that my request should not be interpreted as a
possibility of American intervention in European political affairs in
any way. In a day or two he brought me the memorandum; he thoroughly
understands our position.
I gather from him that the British Government have replied informally to
the German Government to the effect that they believed the memorandum
contained a basis deserving of careful consideration, and that the
French have replied in a more guarded manner but have not rejected the
idea. Apparently there has been great divergence of opinion in the
British Cabinet as to what form the question of security should take and
even as yet there is no crystallized policy determined upon. It would
appear fairly certain, however, that the British will attempt to induce
France to include Germany in any pact, on the understanding, of course,
that Germany will first enter on an equal footing into the League of
Nations. Conversations are now taking place on this basis between
Herriot34 and Chamberlain, but the situation is in a
very fluid state and it will probably be several months before anything
definite evolves. Italy can be counted upon to follow the lead of Great
Britain.
There has been much talk in the press here of a Disarmament Conference in
Washington. To me it seems clear that before France will attend such a
conference the question of her security, as she views it, must be
definitely settled.
With best wishes [etc.]
[Enclosure]
German Memorandum on the Subject of a Security
Pact
Berlin, 20 January,
1925.
The Disarmament and Evacuation questions which are now being
discussed are often regarded in France from the point of view of
security against possible German intentions of aggression.
Therefore, they would possibly more easily find a solution, if an
agreement of a general kind could be brought about with the
intention of guaranteeing peace between Germany and France. Germany
is entirely ready to accept this point of view. She wishes to see
all problems which may accrue between her and France to be treated
in no other way than by peaceful understanding and is therefore, for
her part, also interested in the formation of a special treaty-basis
for such a peaceful understanding.
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When considering all the different methods which might at present be
brought into being for the formation of a pact of security, one
might start from an idea similar to the one which in December 1922
formed the basis of the suggestion made by the then German
Chancellor Cuno.35 Germany could, for instance, declare
herself in agreement with a pact, whereby the Powers interested on
[in?] the Rhine, above all England,
France, Italy and Germany, could solemnly pledge themselves to the
Government of the United States of America as Trustees, to carry on
no war with one another for a still to be defined period of time. A
far reaching treaty of arbitration could be connected with such a
pact between Germany and France in a similar way, as has already
been formed during the last few years between several European
Powers. Germany is ready to enter into such treaties of arbitration
with all other States as well, in order to guarantee a peaceful
settlement of judicial and political conflicts.
Besides this a pact would also be acceptable to Germany which
expressly guarantees the territorial statics
quo on the Rhine. The tenor of such a pact could eventually
be that the States which are interested in the Rhine should
reciprocally agree fully to respect the inviolability of the
territorial status quo on the Rhine, that
they furthermore, both jointly and separately, guarantee the
execution of this obligation and, finally, that they will consider
every action which tends to counteract the obligation as a matter of
joint or individual concern. In the same sense these Treaty States
could guarantee in this pact the execution of the obligation
regarding the demilitarisation of the Rhineland which Germany has
undertaken in Articles 42 and 43 of the Treaty of Versailles.
Included in this pact could also be arbitral conventions of the kind
mentioned above between Germany and all other States who would be
ready to take part in such conventions.
It will be possible to add several other possibilities of solution to
the above-named examples. And the ideas which form the basis of
these examples could in one way or another be also combined. But the
examples might possibly suffice to show that, if all States
concerned have the wish for guarantees to bring about a peaceful
development, it would not be difficult to find a definite basis by
treaty means.
