500.A15a3/451
French Note Accepting the Invitation of the British Government To Participate in a Naval Conference82
The French Government has studied with great interest the letter of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs by which the British Government, while communicating the principles which formed the basis of provisional accord between itself and the Government of [Page 267] the United States of America, invites it to be represented at the Conference which will open in London beginning the third week in January, and at which will be discussed the problems relative to the categories of warships not included in the Treaty of Washington of 1922, as well as questions envisaged in the second paragraph of article XXI of that treaty.
The Government of the Republic is extremely happy that the conversations engaged in between the British Prime Minister and the Ambassador of the United States at London, following the method suggested during the deliberations of the Preparatory Disarmament Commission, have taken so favorable a turn; it is not less happy to learn that the two Governments have found in the Pact of Paris of August 27, 1928, a valuable source for the realization between them of an entente in principle on naval armaments which appears to them to respond to the needs of their security. The British Government, after having consulted with the Government of the United States, now proposes to extend these conversations to the powers particularly interested in the solution of the naval problem, and this initiative has expressly for its object, as is stated in the communication of the Foreign Secretary, the facilitation of the task of the Preparatory Commission and that of the future General Conference for the Limitation and Reduction of Armaments.
The Government of the Republic has given too many proofs of its desire to see the prompt accomplishment of the preparatory work of this Conference, whose meeting will permit the realization of the obligations of article VIII of the Covenant of the League of Nations, not to be delighted by such a proposition. It is therefore happy to accept the invitation which has been addressed to it.
The principles which have always guided French policy, both with regard to the general conditions of the problem of the limitation of armaments and on the subject of the special conditions of the problem of the limitation of naval armaments, have been too often defined, both during the work at Geneva and in related negotiations, to need any repetition.
Furthermore, the British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in his letter mentioned above lets it be known that it is the intention of his Government to proceed with the French Government, as with the other Governments invited to the London conference, for a preliminary exchange of views on the questions which will be entered upon the program of their common deliberations. The Government of the Republic sees only advantages in the application of such a method, which will furnish it the opportunity to set forth its viewpoint with regard to the several points outlined in the letter of His Excellency Mr. Henderson on the problems connected with them and on all the questions which may arise before the forthcoming Conference.
- Translation supplied by the editor. A copy of the French text was received by the Chargé in Great Britain from the French Ambassador and transmitted to the Department in despatch No. 435, November 21, 1929 (500.A15a3/451).↩