703.72119 Military Clauses/92: Telegram
The Ambassador in Germany (Sackett) to the Secretary of State
[Received 9:44 p.m.]
190. Some of this morning’s papers carried a Wolff telegram with a Washington September 20 date line reading as follows:
“President Hoover said today: As far as press despatches from Paris concerning the German question of right to equality are concerned [Page 440] the position of the American Government is clear. The only question which interests our country is a diminution of armaments throughout the whole world step by step. We do not belong to the signatory powers of the Versailles Treaty and therefore also not to the partners of the provisions concerning German armament limitations [sic]. That is solely a European question. The United States have always declared that they will take no part in a discussion thereof. We are anxious that Germany shall continue to participate in the arms conference which today has such promise of success for the whole world and that she shall lend her aid to the fulfillment of this great purpose”.65
Other papers today have carried other versions of this alleged statement all of which, however, like the one quoted above (where it said that we are not signatories of the Treaty of Versailles) contain evidence that they cannot be a direct and correct quotation of any statement the President may have made.
Inquiry throughout the day has failed to reveal the source of this telegram from Washington, and the abrupt way it was introduced without any indication of the occasion on which such a statement might have been made or the furnishing of any other background forced us to suspect that at best this was something lifted from its context.
Von Bülow asked me to call at the Foreign Office this afternoon and showing me two Wolff news service sheets containing this item as well as such [as?] were purported to be New York newspaper comment on “Hoover’s appeal to Germany to return to the Disarmament Conference” asked if this was the official American attitude. Bülow expressed satisfaction and appreciation of the stand taken by the President which he interpreted as definitely approving the German thesis in the controversy over the equality question and as being in contrast with the French and English reaction. He said, however, that pressing though this “appeal” was the German Government did not feel that it could accede to it unless there were some assurance that the Disarmament Conference before proceeding to the consideration of concrete points of disarmament should take up and settle the question as to whether or not Germany’s equality of rights was to be recognized.
The situation has been most confusing from this end inasmuch as the President’s alleged statement seems to be completely at variance with the attitude of our Government as set forth in the Department’s telegrams 311 of September 2, noon, and 325, September 16, 1 p.m., to the Embassy at Paris (repeated here under instructions) and I assumed that if it really were so I would have been informed. Accordingly [Page 441] in replying to Bülow’s question if the statement attributed to the President represented our Government’s attitude I felt it preferable not to expound the attitude as set forth in the two telegrams under reference (with which as I understand it I might in my discretion acquaint the German Government) until I referred the matter to you and found out the exact situation. In consequence I told Bülow that I could not answer his question until I referred it to my Government.
I should appreciate full instruction at your earliest convenience.
- For text as released by the White House, see Department of State, Press Releases, September 24, 1932, p. 183.↩