Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1927, Volume I

500.A15 b/39

The Secretary of the American Representation on the Preparatory Commission ( Marriner ) to the Secretary of State

Berne , December 9, 1926 .
[Received December 23.]

No. 190

Sir: I have the honor to refer to the second paragraph of the Department’s telegram No. 79, of December 4, 1 p.m.,⁷ relating to the submission of a written communication to the Secretariat of the League commenting on the report of the Joint Commission.⁸ It had not been my intention to submit any communication in writing without specific instructions from the Department and I had intended to embody my suggestions on this subject in the general report on the work of this session of Subcommittee “B”. However, as the pressure of work for translators in the Secretariat has been very great due to the meeting of the Council, the Legation has not yet received the documents incident to the session in question. Therefore, inasmuch as any communications to be submitted should be in the possession of the Secretariat by December 31st, I have decided not to await the receipt of the procès-verbaux and copies of the report before submitting my suggestions on this particular subject.

As stated in the first paragraph of my telegram No. 159, November 29, 6 p.m.,⁹ the preamble of the report of Subcommission “B” reserves “for all the governments represented on it the right to make any observations that they may think fit, either in documents to be submitted before December 31st for distribution to the Preparatory Commission, or orally in the course of the discussions which will take place in the Preparatory Commission on the questions dealt with in the report”. The position of the American Delegation was made especially clear by the inclusion in the same section of the report of the following sentence:

“In particular, the United States Delegation, having had no connection with the work of the Joint Commission and hence no opportunity to express its views, desires to make it clear that the views of the United States Delegation on each of the questions referred to Subcommission ‘B’ are those set forth by it on each of these questions in the report of Subcommission ‘A’.”¹⁰

Therefore, since the relation of the American Government to the report of the Joint Commission is made clear, and since all rights for either oral or written comment in the future are reserved, it does not seem to me that there is any necessity of submitting written comment on the subject matter of the Joint Commission report before December 31st. However, in the event that the Department should desire to make any observations in writing at this time and to amplify in any such document the statements of the American Delegation already contained in the report of Subcommission “B”, I am giving below, for the Department’s convenience, and as a possible basis for such a communication, specific references to the position of the American Delegation as set forth in the report of Subcommission “A” on each of the questions dealt with in the report of the Joint Commission.

With reference to Sections I and II of the Joint Commission report, “with regard to the Proposal submitted by the Belgian Delegate to the Preparatory Commission” relating to the insertion in any possible convention of provisions similar to those contained in the Statute of the International Labor Office (Articles 411–420 of the Treaty of Versailles), the point of view of the American Delegation is contained in a text submitted by the delegations of Chile, Italy, Japan and the United States on page 8 of document C. P. D. C. A. 170 (f), and in a declaration by the delegations of the British Empire, Chile, United States, Italy, Japan and Sweden on the same subject on page 16 of the same document.¹¹

In connection with Section III of the Joint Commission report “with regard to the proposal submitted by the Delegate of the British Empire to the Preparatory Commission” concerning poison gases, the position of the American Delegation is contained in document C. P. D. C. A. 170 (d) of the report on the same subject by Subcommission “A”.¹²

With reference to Section IV of the Joint Commission report “with regard to the Note relating to the Preparatory Commission’s Commentary on Questions II (b) and III”, which deals with the question of military expenditure, the position of the American Delegation has been set forth in the statement of the delegations of the Argentine, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands and the United States of America on page 49 of document C. P. D. C. A. 170 (i) and in the declaration of the delegations of Germany, the Argentine, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United States of America on page 97 of the same document.¹³

With reference to Section V of the report of the Joint Commission “with regard to the Preparatory Commission’s Commentary on Question V (a)”, concerning the principle on which it is possible to draw up a scale of armaments taking into account certain specified factors, the American Delegation’s position is contained in documents C. P. D. C. A. 170 (b)¹⁴ and C. P. D. C. A. 73 (b) page 3.

With reference to Section VI of the Joint Commission report “with regard to Question I (a)” on the influence of the material resources of a country on its war strength, the point of view of the American Delegation is to be found in the text submitted by the delegations of the British Empire, Bulgaria, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United States of America on page 2 of document C. P. D. C. A. 170 and in the explanatory statement of the Delegation of the United States on pages 9 to 14, inclusive, of the same document.¹⁵

In connection with Section VIII of the Joint Commission report “with regard to Question VII” on the subject of regional self-sufficiency, the attitude of the American Delegation has been set forth in a statement of the Delegation of the United States on page 8 of document C. P. D. C. A. 170 (c).¹⁶

Should the Department desire to submit any written communication containing comment on the report of the Joint Commission, it will be necessary that I be so informed by telegraph in order that the document may reach the Secretariat before December 31st.

I have [etc.]

J. Theodore Marriner

7. Not printed.
8. The report of the Joint Commission is printed in League of Nations, Preparatory Commission for the Disarmament Conference: Sub-Commission B, Report No. 1 (CP. D. 29), p. 4.
9. Not printed.
10. The report of Subcommission A is printed in League of Nations, Preparatory Commission for the Disarmament Conference: Report of Sub-Commission A (Military, Naval and Air) (C.739.M.278.1926.IX.—C.P.D.28).
11. Report of Sub-Commission A, pp. 165 and 167.
12. Ibid., p. 172.
13. Ibid., pp. 124 and 139.
14. Ibid., p. 144.
15. Ibid., pp. 11 and 19.
16. Ibid., p. 160.