Papers relating to the foreign relations of the United States, 1931, Volume I

500.A15 Arms Truce/4: Telegram

The Minister in Switzerland (Wilson) to the Secretary of State

Geneva, September 10, 1931—8 p.m.
[Received September 10—7:59 p.m.]

120. Cecil⁴⁸ delivered important speech in Assembly today principally dealing with disarmament.⁴⁹ Points of particular interest follow:

1. He lent his Government’s wholehearted support to Grandi’s idea for arms truce during the period of arms conference and expressed the hope that a resolution would be introduced which would bring this before the Third Committee. He assumed that the proposal or suggestion would cover land, sea, and air rearmaments.

2. He stated “and I like to emphasize the fact—because after all that fact is in itself a great [step] forward—that by the unanimous consent of the world that Conference is to meet on the second February of next year⁵⁰ and that no Government, least of all my own, would tolerate for a moment any proposal for its postponement”.

3. He stated “there are at present in this Assembly the representatives of two great highly respected nations, each in their way leaders of the world’s civilization. If there could be a real rapprochement between France and Germany not only in words but in actions that would remove I believe seventy-five per cent of the political unrest of the world”.

Wilson

48. Viscount Cecil of Chelwood, head of the British delegation.
49. Text in League of Nations, Official Journal, Special Supp. No. 93, p. 57.
50. The General Disarmament Conference of 1932.