500.A15a3/1192: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in France ( Armour )
278. For Gibson. On Saturday morning the French Ambassador brought me a memorandum from his Government on the French naval program and the French-Italian difficulties.63 The most significant passage stated that the French Government was still striving to reach a friendly agreement with Italy with regard to the limitation of the [Page 153] categories of warships not provided for in the Washington Treaty; that, however, such an agreement could not be effected on terms which would imply the superiority on the Mediterranean of the Italian fleet over the French fleet, the latter being required for the protection, on other seas and within the French colonies, of interests which do not fall to the care of the Italian Navy.
Claudel asked me, before I had time to read the memorandum, what kind of a compromise between France and Italy I would recommend. I said that of course I could not make any recommendation on figures; that they were a matter for negotiation between the two countries. I again made clear to him that my suggestion was that Italy should lay aside until 1936 her technical insistence on parity and that France should, in the meantime, abandon her insistence upon the exact figures of the loi navale between now and 1936. I told him that I thought if this could be done, a modus vivendi on construction in the meantime could be arranged and announced to the world in unilateral declarations. I likewise let him know that it seemed to us that Italy had thus far displayed a more conciliatory disposition than France. Claudel inquired whether or not the building of any of the reserve tonnage in the battleship category would adversely affect the situation; I told him that I realized that this right had been reserved to France in the London Naval Treaty.
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