500.A15A4 Steering Committee/141: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the American Delegate (Wilson)
241. Your 446, November 11, 11 a.m. You are instructed to state in the Committee or in the Bureau, when the appropriate occasion arises, that this Government is prepared to support the inclusion in the convention of measures of supervision and control of the private manufacture of arms of the general nature of those indicated in Articles 3 and 4 of the Draft Convention of 1929, provided that the same measure of supervision and of publicity is applied to both private and state manufacture, and provided that a substantial reduction and limitation of armaments is agreed upon.
For your information. It is our understanding that the supervision and control contemplated is solely domestic control by each Government within its own jurisdiction, and that no form of international [Page 374] control in this field is contemplated. It is also our understanding that under the system of supervision which is contemplated there would be no restrictions placed upon the various governments as to the number of licenses to be issued or as to the amount of non-prohibited weapons which might be manufactured within the jurisdiction of each.
We hope that the specific means for carrying out any system of supervision agreed upon may be left in so far as possible to the decision of the several contracting parties.