500.A15a3/1531: Telegram
The Ambassador in Great Britain (Dawes) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 2—11:14 a.m.]
130. Reference is made to Department’s 112 of May 1, 5 p.m. Many small technical differences involved in the Franco-Italian naval negotiations have been gradually eliminated. Thus the remaining differences are reduced to such understandable terms as to invite discussion on broad [omission]. At the time the French memorandum was received I asked Craigie and Malkin, for my own understanding and not officially, whether the acceptance of the French plan was not an improvement of the present situation from the viewpoints of Great Britain, Japan, and the United States—an improvement because the proposal results in a definitive postponement of Britain’s use of the escalator clause which can now be brought about at any time by French construction. I also wondered why an agreement for 4½ years was not to be preferred to no agreement at all.
I raised the same inquiry in an informal discussion with the Prime Minister at which Senator Morrow was present. Generally speaking the discussions with the Prime Minister and equally with Craigie and Malkin departed from a consideration of the merits of the question and became an exchange of views upon the internal political situations in Britain, France, and Italy which would make the acceptance of the French proposition unlikely. The situation, in my judgment, has now resolved itself into one of waiting for the old-school political atmospheres to be clarified by the events of the coming month or so. The attitudes expressed in confidential governmental circles are increasingly mild. This factor suggests that an atmosphere of compromise is already being produced by consideration of the alternatives which a final failure to solve this problem would present. It must be realized that the nation responsible for the disagreement has destroyed an opportunity for a five-power pact effective until July of 1935 among states which possess a total naval tonnage of 3,600,000 tons—this for a consideration involving 67,000 tons of construction.
A day or so ago Mr. Alexander stated informally that he and the French Minister of Marine had fully discussed the application of article 19 of the London Treaty when the Basis of Agreement was reached. This discussion covered the point now raised by France.