500.A16/290
The Department of State to the British Embassy
Memorandum
The State Department has considered the British Embassy’s aide-mémoire of August 28, quoting press reports concerning the policy which it was suggested would be followed by Mr. Norman Davis on his return to the General Disarmament Conference at Geneva. Attention was called in particular to one quotation which read that there was “good reason to believe that the United States Government is now [Page 208] prepared to accept a scheme for the supervision and control of armament manufacturers by a joint international commission on the lines proposed by France”.
The Department believes that an erroneous impression has probably been derived from this quotation by the inclusion of the word “manufacturers”, the more so as with respect to the general subject of the control of manufacture of arms, there has been no fundamental change in the American position.
To be more explicit, the American Government to a large extent shares the views of the French Government with regard to the necessity for an adequate system of supervision and control of armaments through the Permanent Disarmament Commission. While this Government is not prepared to commit itself in advance more than it has heretofore done as to the proper measure of supervision and control which should be established over the manufacture of arms, both public and private, it is sympathetic with the idea of some supervision and a system of licensing.
Mr. Norman Davis, who is sailing for England today, is prepared to consider this subject in detail at the conversations in which he will participate on his arrival in Europe.