Office of the Historian

600.A15A4 Plenary Sessions/16: Telegram

The Acting Chairman of the American Delegation (Gibson) to the Secretary of State

[Extract]
Geneva, February 16, 1932—midnight [10 p.m.?]
[Received February 17—9:40 a.m.]

29. The representatives of the Argentine, Persia, Switzerland, Yugoslavia and New Zealand addressed the plenary session this morning.

Bosch, Argentina, submitted the following four concrete points on behalf of his Delegation.

1.
He accepted the draft convention as a basis of discussion.
2.
He declared his support for the establishment of a permanent international supervision of armaments in application of any agreements concluded in Geneva provided that this supervision is accepted unanimously and without reservation and is carried on in a practical form and to the extent considered by the Conference to be compatible with the sovereign rights of each state.
3.
He proposes that an undertaking should be entered into between countries which did not sign the Washington or London Naval Treaties not to build or acquire capital ships of more than 10,000 tons since these armaments have a definitely aggressive character.
4.
He considered that there was one conception, that of contraband of war, of which this Conference should endeavor to lay down at least the essential principles if it is not possible to define it more fully. He then proposed on behalf of his delegation that an international agreement should be concluded under which the signatory states would agree never to regard as contraband of war certain foodstuffs to be mentioned specifically in the convention. He trusted that this proposal would receive the unanimous support of great and small powers and producing and consuming countries of those nations which passed through the war as well as those which although neutral [Page 40] were not spared by the world conflagration. No country could be sure if it attempted to conquer its opponents by these means that the weapon would not be used against it. The spectre df blame would then arise; there would be the risk of blockade of essential roads which would finally result in unrestricted submarine warfare.

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Gibson