500.A15 Arms Truce/114
The Secretary-General of the League of Nations (Drummond) to the Secretary of State76
Sir: Under cover of my Circular Letter No. C. L. 25777 I had the honour to send you the report relating to the Armaments Truce, adopted by the Council on September 30th last.
The last paragraph of this report authorizes me to take, in consultation with the President of the Council, such measures as may be [Page 471] necessary to forward to you the replies of the various Governments invited to the Disarmament Conference, so as to enable your Government to consider the said replies and to take a final decision on the matter.
I have sent you all the replies which have reached me to date.
The President of the Council, whom I have consulted on this subject, is of opinion, after consideration of these replies, that he is justified in concluding:
that none of the Governments are opposed to the truce and that, on the contrary, all have declared their willingness to accept it;
that a number of Governments make their acceptance conditional upon reciprocity and that such reciprocity has in fact been achieved;
finally, that many of the replies contain interpretations and observations, but that these interpretations and observations appear to be in keeping with the spirit and the letter of the resolution and report.
In these circumstances, the President of the Council is of opinion that the procedure which would be most in harmony with the objects of the truce and the spirit of the Twelfth Assembly’s discussions on this subject, and which, moreover, would avoid the delay involved in a further consultation of the Governments concerned, would be to consider, unless and in so far as Governments do not forthwith intimate any objection to this course, that the Armaments Truce has, under the conditions laid down in the Resolution and the Report adopted by the Assembly on September 29th last, been accepted for one year as from November 1st, 1931, by the Governments invited to the Disarmament Conference.
I have [etc.]