500.A15A4 Steering Committee/178: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the American Delegate (Wilson)
249. Your 465, November 21, 3 p.m. and 466, November 21, 5 p.m. The analysis we had prepared of the situation facing the conference as a result of the presentation of the French and British viewpoints was almost identical with your own.
I concur in your estimate of the weakness, and even the dangers, of the French plan, and I feel perhaps more strongly than you that Sir John Simon’s speech failed to make any substantial contribution to the cause of disarmament. There seems to be very little of the [Page 405] substance of the Hoover proposal left in either presentation, except for an attenuated acceptance of the principle of dealing with land effectives.
Given the difficulties of harmonizing the divergent approaches to the problem of disarmament, I fully approve your idea of endeavoring to negotiate as speedily as possible a convention of limited duration, during the life of which the disarmament commission should try to work out a detailed general treaty. The vital elements as I see it are: (1) speed in drafting, to profit by the better spirit which has recently been evidenced and (2) the utmost simplicity of form, keeping as far as possible to a statement of the broad principles agreed to and avoiding undue complexities.
Even if you succeed in obtaining agreement on only a portion of the eight points outlined in your 466, November 21, 5 p.m., but can actually sign a preliminary instrument within the next few weeks, its effect on world public opinion would be one of real encouragement, at a moment when it is urgently needed.