500.A15a3/162: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Great Britain (Dawes)
Washington, September 11, 1929—8
p.m.
244. The following principles are set down upon which the Government of the United States and His Majesty’s Government propose, as relating to their own governments, to enter upon a conference of the principal naval powers for the limitation and reduction of naval armament.
- First: These negotiations are the result of the general pact for the renunciation of war, and the consequent realignment of national attitudes to the position that armament may not be used as an instrument of national policy in the relations of nations with each other; therefore, that pact must be taken as the starting point of agreement.
- Second: We agree on parity in combatant strength of the respective navies.
- Third: We agree that this parity shall be separately by categories, of capital ships, aircraft carriers, destroyers, cruisers, and submarines.
- Fourth: We agree that we shall consider December 31, 1936, as the date on which parity shall be reached between our two fleets either by scrapping, obsolescence or construction as the two navies may require.
- Fifth: The Washington Treaty having fixed the ratio of capital ships and aircraft carriers to that date, we shall not disturb the provisions of that treaty except that we shall reconsider its replacement programs with view of diminishing the amount of replacement construction implied under that treaty.
- Sixth: The scrapping age of ships is to be as to cruisers, twenty years, as to destroyers, sixteen years, and as to submarines, thirteen years. Ships are to be scrapped forthwith on reaching scrapping age, except that ships may be retained beyond scrapping age as an alternative to permitted replacements and except as stated in the eighth paragraph.
- Seventh: As to submarines we agree to the principle of total abolition in international war but we realize that it may be difficult to secure the consent of other nations to this proposal.
- Eighth: We agree upon reduction of the present aggregate tonnages of destroyers and submarines and the limitation of future construction. The United States may retain destroyers and submarines temporarily in excess of the point of parity agreed upon and after the age of obsolescence during such period prior to 1936 as Great Britain retains tonnages beyond parity in the cruiser category.
- Ninth: The British cruiser strength shall be reduced to a maximum of a total displacement of 339,000 standard tons of which not to exceed 15 ships may be 10,000 ton or less with 8-inch guns.
- Tenth: The United States cruiser strength shall be brought to parity with British cruiser strength as above stated taking into account in both navies the elements of displacement, age and guns, but the United States shall have not to exceed 21 of the 10,000 ton ships with 8-inch guns.
- Eleventh: The standard of cruiser strength stated in paragraphs ninth and tenth are maximums which both governments desire to reduce at the conference, and it is agreed that earnest consideration will be given before and during the conference to methods by which further reduction can be accomplished, including consideration of confining a part of cruiser construction by both nations to peace type police cruisers of limited armament and speed.
- Twelfth: Any agreement to be reached at the conference is to contain a provision that it is open to reconsideration by any of the parties in the event of the inauguration of a menacing building program by any non-signatory power.
- Thirteenth: A conference of the five powers is to be called by the British Government to take place in London early in December 1929.
- Fourteenth: It will be proposed to the other naval powers signatory to the Washington Treaty that this conference become the conference provided under the Washington Treaty to be called in 1931.
Stimson