500.A15a3/261: Telegram
The Ambassador in Italy (Garrett) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 14—9:17 p.m.]
72. My telegram No. 71.79 Following is text of Italian acceptance of invitation to Disarmament Conference.
“The Italian Government has considered most seriously the note of the 7th instant in which the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, [Page 266] after having informed the Italian Government of the points upon which a provisional and informal agreement was reached between the British Government and the United States Government in the course of their conversations on the subject of naval disarmament, proposed to the Royal Government that it participate in a Conference to be held in London at the beginning of the third week of next January for the purpose of considering the categories of ships not covered by the Washington Treaty of 1922 and in order to deal with the questions covered by the second paragraph of article 21 of that treaty. The aim of this Conference to which the powers signatory to the Washington Treaty are invited, should be to elaborate a text to facilitate the task of the League of Nations Preparatory Commission and of the subsequent General Disarmament Conference.
The views of the Italian Government on the problems of disarmament in general and of naval disarmament in particular are too well known to the British Government to require further declarations with regard thereto. These views have been clearly expressed on repeated occasions and ultimately in the note verbale addressed to the British Embassy in Rome on October 6, 1928,80 in reply to the communication relative to the proposed Franco-British naval agreement of the past year.81
Desirous as always of participating in any move whatsoever that may be proposed for the elimination of the losses and dangers of excessive armaments and entertaining the hope that the general initiative may result in real progress toward the solution of the general problem of disarmament, the Italian Government is happy to accept the invitation of the British Government to participate in the London Conference.
The Italian Government takes due notice of the British Government’s proposal to communicate to it the British views on the subjects to be discussed at the Conference and, while waiting for these communications, it is considering in its turn informing the British Government of its own point of view on the matter.”
- Not printed.↩
- Great Britain, Cmd. 3211, Miscellaneous No. 6 (1928), Papers Regarding the Limitation of Naval Armaments, p. 39.↩
- Foreign Relations, 1928, vol. i, p. 264.↩