500.A15a3/1399
The Secretary of State to the British Ambassador (Lindsay)
My Dear Mr. Ambassador: I have received your note of March fourth [fifth], with the annexed memorandum, containing the tentative text of the agreement which has been recently reached between Great Britain, France and Italy. I shall await the final text with much interest. As I have already tried to make it clear to your Government in my previous communications to you, I think that the final success of the agreement which Messrs. Henderson, Alexander and Craigie have brought so successfully to this stage will depend very largely on the form and method in which it is consummated and finally submitted to the five Powers. The more I have considered it and discussed it with the representatives of my Government, the more clear it seems to me that in every respect except one this new agreement should be solely an agreement between or declaration by Great Britain, [Page 375] France and Italy, which those three Powers have made between themselves respecting the levels of armaments of their auxiliary vessels, which agreement when finally attained between those three is merely presented to the other two, the United States and Japan, for their notation and information. If instead of this the United States were asked to become a party to an agreement which was to be made an integral portion of the London Naval Treaty, Part 3, by which the United States formally agreed that France should have 81,000 tons of submarines and the United States only 52,000 tons, I can see an endless vista of delay and discussion before the United States Senate. Whereas, on the other hand if it were presented to the United States as an arrangement solely between France and Italy, and possibly Great Britain, on which we were not called to pass but which had the great advantage of bringing about a practical restriction upon France and Italy (even though a high one) which does not now exist at all, it would be regarded here as truly in the light of a great advantage over the existing status quo.
The only provision in the whole arrangement which may require a formal agreement between all five of the naval Powers is the provision permitting a possible extension of the capital ship allowance to France and Italy from 175,000 tons to 181,000 tons. This extension of the figures of the Washington Treaty, however, is so slight at most and will not come into force until so near the termination of the London Treaty that I think it will not offer serious difficulty. I am now inclined to think that this feature could best be effected by an exchange of notes between the five Governments, which in our case will probably be submitted to our Senate.
If the entire arrangement could follow the form which I have outlined above, namely, an agreement or joint declarations on the part of the three Powers as to the auxiliary craft, which would simply be brought to the attention of the other two Powers, and an exchange of notes between the five Powers as to the slight alteration of the Washington Treaty in respect to the limit of battleship tonnage for France and Italy; I feel that this whole arrangement would stand in its best possible light before the peoples of all five countries and would win the immediate and general approval which it deserves.
The form of this arrangement is of such importance that I am seeking to expedite the labors of draftsmanship which you tell me are now going on in London by frankly advising you of my views beforehand. If the final form when completed follows approximately this line, there will be a minimum of delay in giving you my final acceptance of it, and I am encouraged by what you have previously told me to the effect that my views are in general accord with those of Mr. Henderson.
I am [etc.]