500.A15A4 General Committee/189: Telegram
The Acting Chairman of the American Delegation (Gibson) to the Secretary of State
[Received March 3—3:55 p.m.]
552. During the further discussion of the terms of reference for the Effectives Committee (Conference Document C G 43) the General Commission decided this afternoon by a vote of 17 to 11 to take legal effectives for the purpose of establishing the irreducible component [Page 22] France, Great Britain, Germany and Japan supporting our contentions that real effectives should be taken as the basis for determining this component. After the vote had been taken Wilson remarked that as the American proposals on effectives had been based on the assumption that these real effectives would be used it would be necessary to raise the proportion of reduction from 33⅓ percent to something considerably higher in order to get through paper effectives and reach real men.
After the decisions of the General Commission to reserve for future determination the proportion of reduction Nadolny read a prepared statement pointing out the grave preoccupations in Germany over the present trend of the Conference. He said that no single decision had yet been reached which would reduce one soldier, one gun, one tank or one airplane; that over 8 months ago it had been said that the moment had come to proceed to real decisions. Since that time he was afraid no progress had been made and his country could not help voicing its grave concern.
In reply Henderson pointed out that with reference to the delay no single delegation could throw the first stone. He was convinced however that all were resolved as speedily as possible to reach the important decisions and thought that recent work in the General Commission in spite of the innumerable discussions over what had appeared to be minor points gave more promise of a success.
Unless a method is found to change the vote adopting legal effectives as a basis for possible measures of limitation and reduction it would mean the destruction of possibility for real accomplishments under the Hoover plan. Experience has shown however that such a vote is rarely binding when the time comes for real reduction.