500.A15 a 1/262a
The Secretary of State to the Chairman of the American Delegation (Gibson)
Sir: The President has instructed me to inform you of your appointment as Chairman of the American Delegation to the Conference on the Limitation of Naval Armaments, which is to meet at Geneva on June 20th.
Rear Admiral Hilary P. Jones, of the General Board of the Navy, is likewise being instructed to attend the Conference with the rank of Delegate.
The following persons have been designated to assist you at this Conference:
- For the Department of State:
- Frederic R. Dolbeare, Counselor of Legation at Berne,
- George A. Gordon, Secretary of Legation at Budapest,
- S. Pinkney Tuck, Consul at Geneva,
- Allen W. Dulles, Legal Adviser.
- For the Navy Department:
- Rear Admiral Andrew T. Long,
- Rear Admiral Frank H. Schofield,
- Captain J. M. Reeves,
- Captain Arthur J. Hepburn,
- Captain Adolphus Andrews,
- Captain W. W. Smyth,
- Commander H. C. Train,
- Lieutenant Commander H. H. Frost.
The Honorable Hugh R. Wilson, American Minister to Switzerland, will act as Secretary General of the Conference, and Frederic R. Dolbeare, Counselor of Legation, as Secretary of the American Delegation. You will be appropriately empowered to negotiate and, subject to the approval of the President, to conclude an agreement with the Plenipotentiary representatives of Great Britain and Japan for the limitation of naval armaments in classes of vessels not limited by the terms of the Treaty signed at Washington on February 6, 1922.
The President, in his message to Congress of February 10th, indicated the reasons which made further naval limitation desirable, and it is upon the considerations therein set forth that your conduct of [Page 44] the forthcoming negotiations should rest. In this respect, the President re-affirmed, as a fundamental policy of the American Government, its support of measures for the further limitation of armament in the interest of peace and international understanding. It was with a view to making possible a definite step for the further limitation of armaments and to complete the work begun at the Washington Conference that the President proposed the present Conference.
The primary object of the Conference, the removal of the danger incident to the competitive building of vessels of war not limited by the Washington Treaty will, it is believed, best be achieved by the extension of the principles and of the ratios of the Washington Treaty as between Great Britain, Japan and the United States. As the President of the United States assumed the initiative in calling the Conference, it is considered that it would be entirely appropriate for you to submit to the Conference concrete proposals as to the tonnage allocations in the various categories of vessels which would be acceptable to the United States and of corresponding tonnages for Great Britain and Japan. Such a statement is therefore submitted herewith, together with an introductory memorandum outlining the reasons which prompt this Government to make the proposals in question.40 The various problems which may arise for discussion at Geneva have been fully considered in your conferences with the President and with me, and the written and oral instructions which you have heretofore received will be supplemented from time to time by telegraphic instructions in reply to any specific questions which you may present to the Department.
To supplement your written and oral instructions, I desire to impress upon you that in the opinion of this Government, the possibilities of success of the Conference will be greatly enhanced if the deliberations of the Conference are restricted to the immediate problem before it, namely, the extension of the principles and ratios of the Washington Treaty to auxiliary vessels. It would be unwise for the Conference to take under advisement any modification of the Washington Treaty, since two of the Powers party to this Treaty are not represented at Geneva. Further, any discussion of the Washington Treaty may properly be postponed pending the Conference to be held in 1931, pursuant to the terms of that Treaty, since it is only after November 1931, that the questions of the future building programs of the five Powers will be presented. I would consider it particularly undesirable for the Conference to take up the question of naval bases, regulated by Article XIX of the Washington Treaty, or to link this question with that of the further limitation of naval vessels.
[Page 45]Subject to the foregoing, I desire to leave to your discretion the method and the manner in which you will support the principles and the policies of this Government with respect to the further limitation of naval armament as set forth in this instruction and in the memorandum and detailed proposals submitted herewith.
It is impossible to give you at this time detailed instructions as to the various matters which may arise during the Conference. It will be necessary for you to deal with such matters as they are presented, seeking the Department’s instructions on specific points if and when such a course is desirable and possible. You are fully conversant with the President’s views and subject to these instructions and such further instructions as may be sent you from time to time, I shall depend upon you to conduct the negotiations and take such decisions as may be necessary.
I am [etc.]
- Not printed; Mr. Gibson’s statement outlining the American proposal is printed in S. Doc. 55, 70th Cong., 1st sess., p. 24↩