511.1D1/47: Telegram
The Chargé in France (Armour) to the Secretary of State
[Received 8:55 a.m.]
509. From Gordon. Department’s instruction number 4279 of October 22, 1929. In this instruction the Department mentions “the refusal of this Government at this time to be a party to the convention.” This would seem to presuppose that such refusal had already been communicated to the interested parties but I do not find that in [Page 434] its correspondence with the Secretary of the League of Nations or elsewhere the Department has notified this refusal or assigned any ground therefor.
Accordingly in the statement which I will presumably have occasion to make (probably tomorrow evening)11 during the course of the general discussion which will open the Conference, I propose, in addition to setting forth the substantive points of the Department’s instruction, to make reference to the reservation of powers to the several States, as set forth in the tenth amendment to the Constitution, as this would seem to support our point that while the United States does grant very liberal treatment to aliens the authority to enact laws upon a number of the important subjects dealt with by the proposed convention is reserved to the several states, and also to lend force to our other main point that our inability to become a party to the convention is in no wise due to any lack of interest. [Gordon.]
- The text of the statement made at the fourth plenary meeting, November 6, by the American representative was printed in Proceedings of the Conference, p. 49.↩