Papers relating to the foreign relations of the United States, 1929, Volume I

500.A15a3/465

The Italian Embassy to the Department of State

[Washington, November 29, 1929.]

Memorandum

1. In the preliminary discussions between the United States and Great Britain has the fixing of a maximum age limit been contemplated for other types of naval vessels besides the battleships?

2. Under which principles will the line of demarcation between cruisers and destroyers be fixed?

3. Has the American Government considered the opportunity that, in view of the difficulty to fix a same and only method of limitation for all of the five participating nations, the London Conference take into consideration the possibility of applying such different principles as will be suggested by the different needs and the inequalities existing in the composition and strength of the fleets of the various nations?

4. Among the methods that may be considered by the Conference in view of the planned reduction of tonnage to replace the battleships, has the method suggested by Italy in her reply to the Anglo-French proposal of August 1928⁹³ been considered, that is, that the five Powers signatories of the Washington Treaty pledge themselves to postpone until after 1936 the construction of the line vessels that the Treaty allows them to lay down during the period 1931–1936?

93. Presumably the British note verbale presented pursuant to instructions contained in the Foreign Office telegram of July 30, 1928, Great Britain, Cmd. 3211, Miscellaneous No. 6 (1928), p. 27; Italian reply, October 6, 1928, ibid., p. 39.