500.A15A4 General Committee/565

The American Delegate ( Wilson ) to the Acting Secretary of State

Sir: With reference to the problem of the control of trade in and manufacture of arms, I have the honor to submit herewith the text of draft articles94 relating thereto which has been prepared by the Disarmament Section of the League Secretariat for insertion in the British Draft at the second reading at the request of Señor Madariaga, Spanish Delegate. This document is an attempt to combine nearly all proposals submitted both to the technical committee and to the General Commission and as such will be difficult of realization. It maintains the French suggestions (Conf. D/C. G. 122) for the determination of quotas within the limits of which the High Contracting Parties may procure war material but only as regards guns, tanks, aircraft and naval vessels. For the fixation of these quotas account is to be taken of matériel both in service and in stock. The objectionable clause of the French draft establishing the percentage of limit for the manufacture of articles for third parties is maintained but only for study by the Permanent Disarmament Commission.

As regards publicity, a provision has been inserted providing for the preparation of statistics covering implements of war in the course of manufacture, which seems impossible of realization. The Permanent Disarmament Commission likewise has the right to judge at any time whether the rate of supply of articles, as shown by the manufacture and export licenses transmitted to the Permanent Disarmament Commission agrees with the quotas assigned. This maintains the visa power suggested under the French proposal.

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A whole series of questions upon which agreement would not seem possible has been left to the study of the Permanent Disarmament Commission, such as the possibility of progressive standardization of the manufacture of arms; the question of fixing the maximum for each country for those weapons of war in categories other than those limited by the French proposal; the question of the duration of the validity of licenses; the drawing up of models for licenses and the advisability of providing that the approval of the Permanent Disarmament Commission should be obtained before manufacture or export can take place.

There are many articles drawn up along the lines of the Draft Convention of 192995 and the Traffic in Arms Convention of 1925,96 but these are principally taken from the reports of the technical subcommittees and should offer little objection. The main difficulty of the draft is that it does not adequately provide a basis for compromise between the different proposals submitted and maintains intact the divergences of opinion.

I now learn that this draft, which was prepared without consultation with the Rapporteur of the Committee, is considered as an unsatisfactory basis for the President’s discussions this summer. M. Komarnicki, Rapporteur of the Committee for the Regulation of the Trade in and Manufacture of Arms and Implements of War has been charged with the preparation of a list establishing a few major points of principle upon which agreement will be attempted this summer.

It is proposed when the Bureau reconvenes, in October, to charge a drafting committee with the preparation of articles for insertion in the Convention. This draft will be based upon the Committee’s reports (Conf. D/160) and any agreements which have been possible to obtain this summer.

Respectfully yours,

Hugh R. Wilson
  1. Not printed.
  2. For text, see League of Nations, Documents of the Preparatory Commission, Series X, Annex 1 (C. P. D. 211), p. 423.
  3. Foreign Relations, 1925, vol. i, p. 61.