Office of the Historian

500.A15A4 General Committee/164: Telegram

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

Geneva, February 14, 1933—2 p.m.
[Received February 14—11:30 a.m.]

535. Since the receipt of your telegram No. 292, February 11, noon, Wilson and I have taken every possible measure to avoid raising the issue of any extension of the projected no-force affirmation to non-European states. These interventions were apparently successful because at the first meeting of the Political Commission33 this morning [Page 14] many speakers recognized the importance of confining the discussions on the no-force agreement and mutual assistance to European countries in the first instance. In particular this was recognized by Boncour, Bourquin,34 Madariaga,35 Nadolny36 and Eden.37

After an able exposition by Boncour of the most practical method of approaching security from the simple to the complex, the Commission decided to begin its discussions of measures for increasing security in Europe by consideration of a limited no-force affirmation. The British delegate will submit a draft38 covering this point before the meeting tomorrow.

Gibson
  1. The proceedings of this Commission are printed in Records of the Conference, Series D, vol. v, Minutes of the Political Commission. ↩
  2. Member of the Belgian delegation to the General Commission.↩
  3. Member of the Spanish delegation to the General Commission; Ambassador to France.↩
  4. Head of the German delegation to the General Commission.↩
  5. Member of the British delegation to the General Commission; Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.↩
  6. See infra. ↩