793.94 Commission/876: Telegram
The American Delegate (Wilson) to the Secretary of State
[Received March 9—3:50 p.m.]
143. Supplementing my 142, March 8, 9 p.m.19 Ruspoli of the Italian delegation informs me that the Italian Government have instructed Rosso20 to get in touch with the Department to ascertain if possible our attitude on embargo on arms. At the same time he was instructed to get in touch with me on the subject. Ruspoli said that they had made careful study by their jurists of the legal aspect of this question relating to Paraguay and Bolivia (see my 137, March 2, midnight21) and that their jurists were convinced that action upon an embargo taken under article 11 even behind the facade of individual action by the separate states and not as the Council would be a violation of the Covenant.22
From a practical standpoint the Italian Government is of opinion that an embargo on two parties to the dispute is almost certain to hurt the innocent party more than the guilty one since the aggressor will have taken the precaution to store up stocks of war material. The British and French are pushing hard for the establishment of an embargo against Bolivia and Paraguay but the Italian Government will not agree unless the United States also agrees.
According to Ruspoli the same unfairness results in an embargo on Japan and China. The whole action is in favor of the state which the League has just condemned.
The question of Peru and Colombia has not yet been raised in the matter of embargo since the machinery of conciliation under article 15 has not yet been exhausted and will not be exhausted until the adoption of the report provided for under paragraph 4. In any case Ruspoli points out that having attended the meetings of the Council and [Page 364] the informal meetings of the members of the Council he finds Great Britain certainly and France apparently much more interested in applying embargoes on arms against the two parties to a dispute than against the one obviously guilty party, namely, Peru.
Ruspoli said that his Government would be grateful for any views which I could express. I said that I did not know my Government’s views on the subject but would advise him when I learned them.
- This telegram read as follows: “British delegation had just made an appointment with me to see Sir John Simon on Saturday morning. Simon telegraphed that he desired to talk about embargo on arms to the Far East.” (793.94 Commission/869)↩
- Augusto Rosso, Italian Ambassador in the United States.↩
- Not printed.↩
- The Covenant of the League of Nations, Treaties, Conventions, etc., Between the United States of America and Other Powers, 1910–1923 (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1923), vol. iii, p. 3336.↩