500.A15A4 General Committee/175: Telegram

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

546. The sub-committee mentioned in my 537, February 15, 9 p.m. to deal with the formula of non-recourse to force has had a series of [Page 20] meetings which uncovered numerous difficulties which curiously enough the authors of the project had not foreseen.

Eden informed Wilson yesterday that as a result of laborious negotiations a text had been evolved with which the French, Germans, Belgians, Italians and British are now in accord. The text reads as follows:

“The governments of (blank)

Anxious to further the cause of disarmament by increasing the spirit of mutual confidence between the nations of Europe by means of a declaration expressly forbidding resort to force in the cases in which the Pact of Paris forbids resort to war

Hereby solemnly reaffirm that they will not in any circumstances resort, as between themselves, to force as an instrument of national policy”.

Wilson informed Eden that while this text seemed to present fewer difficulties than some which had been suggested nevertheless any phraseology was going to let us in for trouble. He asked Eden what they would do when the inevitable demand arose to extend the scope of document to something approaching universality.

Eden replied in strict confidence that the Prime Minister had stated definitely that Eden must not permit this scope to be extended and must hold the declaration to purely European limits. Eden added rather ruefully that those were his instructions but that he anticipated the greatest difficulty in getting them realized.44

Gibson
  1. For final action upon report and draft declaration adopted as quoted above, see Records of the Conference, Series D, vol. v, Minutes of the Political Commission, pp. 22–30.