500.A15A4 General Committee/476: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Straus) to the Acting Secretary of State
[Received 9:10 p.m.]
260. From Norman Davis. The British represented by Londonderry and Eden and we had today a very frank confidential and exhaustive review of the whole disarmament situation with Daladier and Boncour. I am mailing a full report67 of our conference which lasted from 10:30 a.m. until 5 with an interruption for a luncheon which Boncour gave to the British and ourselves.
The French initially took the position that the disarmament treaty should provide for an interim period of 3 years during which all should agree noting [not?] to construct any of the armaments prohibited by the treaty, the German Reichswehr should be transformed and a strict supervision instituted. If then the supervision showed that [Page 191] Germany was living up to the treaty France would agree (and this was given us in strict confidence) to prohibit heavy artillery above 155 mm., to reduce tanks to a global total of 3,000 tons (from their present total of approximately 12,000 tons) and aviation material by 50 percent. There were certain other conditions relating to budgetary limitation and the control of private manufacture and traffic in arms. With respect to the war matériel to be abolished the French said that a way would have to be found to avoid the use of the word “destruction” since with the present situation in Germany French public opinion would never agree at this time to the destruction of war material but they indicated that a way might be found to accomplish the same result in another form. They suggested for example the idea that it might be left to the League of Nations or the Permanent Disarmament Commission to see to the abolition of the banned material.
We told the French very frankly that their suggestion did not go far enough, that there was no possibility of getting the Germans into line unless the French undertook a positive engagement in the treaty that they would proceed to the abolition of the prescribed war material but that this might be done by stages and pari passu with the conversation [conversion?] of the Reichswehr. We suggested that the period before the first stage of destruction might be extended somewhat beyond the period of a year contemplated in the British draft and further that before there was to be any destruction they would have a period within which to ascertain through the supervision to be established under the treaty whether the Germans were living up to their obligations and that if they were not then France would be relieved from its obligations under the treaty to destroy material. We said that the reduction in war material which the French envisaged (and this is the first time the French have given us any precisions on the point) were encouraging and certainly justified us in pushing ahead our joint study of ways and means of meeting the French difficulties.
I stressed the view that the solution of the problem lay in a controlled disarmament but that we did not wish France to feel that we were pressing her to accept this against her will, that in effect she was faced with the alternative of a reduction in armaments with strict supervision under which Germany would be obligated to remain disarmed or the retention of her present armaments with the certitude that sooner or later Germany would regain her freedom of action and start a competitive race in armaments in which Germany would eventually pass France. Daladier expressed himself as a partisan of a controlled disarmament but many of his colleagues in the Cabinet including Boncour are less practical and more fearful of public opinion.
[Page 192]At the closing of the meeting Daladier said that he would take up with his Cabinet the point of view we had presented but that as the Economic Conference would keep him in London through Wednesday he would [not?] be able to give an answer before Friday of next week.
Our conversation covered the whole range of disarmament including naval problems, budgetary limitation, the supervision of the private manufacturer of arms, on which the French place great emphasis, et cetera. All this will be covered in my written report69 which will reach you via the Europa next week and before any further decisions need be taken on our part.
Cipher copies to Geneva and London. [Davis.]