500.A15 a 1/540: Telegram
The Secretary of State to
President Coolidge
Washington, August 4,
1927.
At the conclusion of the Plenary Session, Gibson read the following
declaration, text of which had been approved by all three delegations:
[Page 154]
- “1. In pursuance of the suggestion of the President of the
United States, the plenipotentiary delegates of the
President of the United States, His Britannic Majesty, and
of His Majesty the Emperor of Japan, met at Geneva on June
20 to discuss the limitation of auxiliary naval
craft.
- 2. Meetings have been held from that date until the 4 of
August, during which period the delegates and their advisers
have considered in detail various methods of effecting this
object. On many important questions provisional agreements
have been reached, certain of which are embodied in the
annexed report of the technical committee of the conference.
These points of agreement relate particularly to the
limitation of destroyers and submarines, and it was only
when the conference took up the question of the limitation
of cruiser class that difficulties were encountered. These
difficulties proved to be of a character to render it
desirable to adjourn the present negotiations until
respective governments have had an opportunity to give
further consideration to the problem and to the various
methods which have been suggested for its solution.
- 3. The American delegates presented the view that within
total tonnage limitations, [which they] initially suggested
should be between 250,000 and 300,000 tons in the cruiser
class for the United States and the British Empire and
between 150,000 and 180,000 tons for Japan, each of the
powers should have liberty to build the number and the type
of vessel which they might consider best suited to their
respective national needs, with freedom, subject to
limitation of the Washington Treaty, to arm these vessels as
they saw fit.
- 4. The British delegates, whilst putting proposals tending
to a limitation of the size of vessels of all classes, have
opposed the principle of limitation by total tonnage alone
on the ground that the largest [larger] ship and the heaviest gun permissible must
inevitably become the standard. They desired first a strict
limitation of the number of 10,000 [-ton] 8 inch gun
cruisers, and secondly the establishment of a secondary type
of cruiser of a maximum [displacement of 6,000 tons,
carrying guns of a maximum] calibre of 6 inches. The British
delegates contended that the establishment of this type
[would] alone enable the British Empire, within a moderate
figure of total tonnage, to attain the numbers which it
regards as indispensable to meet its special circumstances
and its special needs.
- 5. The Japanese delegates presented the view that low
total tonnage levels should be fixed which would effect a
real limitation of auxiliary naval vessels. As for the
question of the 8 inch gun cruisers, while the Japanese
Government could not agree to any restriction as a matter of
principle, they had no difficulty in declaring that,
provided a tonnage level of 315,000 tons for auxiliary
surface vessels were fixed for Japan they would not build
any further 8 inch gun cruisers until 1936, except those
already authorized in existing programs.
- 6. Various methods were considered of reconciling the
divergent views indicated above but, while material progress
has been made and the points of divergence reduced, no
mutually acceptable plan has been found to reconcile the
claim of the British delegates for numbers of vessels, for
the most part armed with 6 inch guns, with the desire of the
American delegates for the lowest possible total tonnage
limitation
[Page 155]
with
freedom of armament within such limitation, subject to the
restriction as to armament already set by the Washington
Treaty.
- 7. Faced with this difficulty, the delegates have deemed
it wise to adjourn the present conference with this frank
statement of their respective views, and to submit the
problem for the further consideration of their governments,
in the hope that consultation between them may lead to an
early solution.
- 8. Further, the delegates agree to recommend to their
respective governments the desirability of arranging between
the signatories of the Washington Treaty that the conference
to be called pursuant to paragraph 2 of Article 4 [21] of
that Treaty should be held earlier than August 1931, the
date contemplated under the terms of that instrument, in
order that any decision reached by such a conference may
come into force before the capital ship construction program
commences, namely in November of that year.
- 9. In making these recommendations and in submitting this
statement of the points of agreement as well as of the
points on which agreement has not yet been achieved, the
delegates desire to place on record a statement of their
conviction that the obstacles that have been encountered
should not be accepted as terminating the effort to bring
about a further limitation of naval armament. On the
contrary, they trust that the measure of agreement which has
been reached, as well as the work which has been done in
clarifying their respective positions, will make it possible
after consultation between the governments to find a basis
for reconciling divergent views and lead to the early
conclusion of an agreement for the limitation of auxiliary
naval vessels which will permit of substantial economy and,
while safeguarding national security, promote the feeling of
mutual confidence and good understanding.”
