500.A15a3/181: Telegram
The Ambassador in Great Britain (Dawes) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 18—8:53 p.m.]
275. Received your telephone call65 before I had finished reading President’s letter,66 with all of which I am in agreement.
As I see it, the situation has become a simple one in the public mind which favors the success of a bold reduction move along the lines suggested to MacDonald by the President. The maximum quantitative difference in my judgment involving parity as it has been expressed [Page 247] in the public figures, is regarded as most insignificant in the public mind. Public opinion is concerned only to a small extent with the relation of this small difference to the cruiser tonnage of the fleets of the two countries, but rather with its relation to the total tonnage of 2,400,000. Now, before MacDonald comes, is the best time to settle the difference that remains, or otherwise not until the Conference opens. Should it be possible to adjust this matter and therewith the question of parity now before he comes, a new agreement between the President and the Prime Minister made public from Washington, in which both would strike for additional proportional reductions on the basis of an eventual British cruiser fleet of 300,000 tons, would have throughout the world a psychological effect of great depth. As compared with the total tonnage of the fleets the reduction suggested by the President will appear to the public as insignificant as the divergence which now separates the two parity proposals. MacDonald should find the President’s analysis of the real strength of Great Britain’s cruiser fleet in recent years useful in overcoming his fear of the defeating consequences of opposition on the part of his Admiralty, a fear which he is likely to advance as his principal objection to accepting our proposal.
It is my hope that MacDonald will realize, as a result of the President’s wider suggestions, the need for meeting before he leaves the present American proposal concerning parity, thereby opening a way for more important things during his visit. In the present psychology of the world what the President has said can be accomplished provided its leaders have his courage.
As I already telephoned, I shall see the Prime Minister on Thursday.