500.A15A4 General Committee (Security)/6
The American Delegate to the General Disarmament Conference ( Wilson ) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 6.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer to the minutes of the Special Committee on Security set up by the Conference for the Limitation and Reduction of Armaments by virtue of the Resolution of June 8th (see my 886, June 8, 1 p.m.40) and to the Report made by M. Politis, Chairman of this Committee, on its behalf to the General Commission of the Conference (Conf. D./C.G./C.S.S./3(1), Geneva, June 25, 1934) and to submit the following comment to the Department with regard thereto.
Initially, it should be said that the actual contents of the Report are not of the first importance as the paper is avowedly of a preliminary character with regard to the subject of regional pacts as a whole and because of a desire to enable States holding different opinions to agree upon the Report. The British feel, however, as I understand it, a [Page 126] certain relief rather perhaps than satisfaction in that the 1928 Model Collective Treaty of Mutual Assistance (Doc. C.563.M.163.1928. IX, Geneva, October 15, 1928) is indicated as the example to be followed and furthermore because the Rhine Pact of Locarno is also mentioned as another appropriate formula for facilitating the conclusion of regional agreements. It was felt that the ideas of the Committee were brought back to more solid ground in basing themselves on these two documents rather than on the far-fetched and perhaps dangerous orientation of more recent conceptions on this subject on the Continent, especially in France, the Little Entente and Russia. At the same time the British consider that they have been able to incline the direction of the agreements toward universal rather than toward strictly localized documents and they had recorded a statement to the effect that regional pacts were not to be considered as directed against any one State.
As to the substance rather than the form of the matter, or it might be said as to the implications to be derived from the Report of the Committee, I understand that the French and the Little Entente are pleased with the fact that the work of the Committee actually endorses, indeed, gives retroactive affirmation to the efforts that the French have been making latterly with regard to the extension of the system of regional pacts on the Continent. This is a matter of amour propre and something peculiarly germane to French psychology while at the same time not without a certain definite tactical or strategic value for the French in their relations with the Little Entente and Russia as well as with regard to pressure on Germany.
Therefore, as is usually the case, there is probably no one correct opinion as to the interpretation and consequences of the Report of the Security Committee. Each country or group of States has drawn its own conclusions. It might be said, however, that while the British had succeeded in limiting considerably the formal contents of the proposed Mutual Assistance Pacts, yet the action of the Committee has added another stone to the peace structure in Europe, from the French point of view, toward the accomplishment of which they have been working so successfully since the War. This seems all the more the case when consideration is given to the fact that the British and others definitely and strongly opposed any action at the recent session of the General Commission which would enable the French to have the aegis of the Conference thrown over and thus support their program of regional agreements in Europe which many feel has for its ultimate purpose the encirclement of Germany and the creation of blocs in Europe which must lead to disastrous consequences. It comes down in effect to a question of intent. If the French are sincere in their professions that their purpose is to include Germany in these regional [Page 127] agreements and if Germany is brought into this framework, then the participation of the Conference with respect to such forms of accord will be constructive, not undesirable. If, on the other hand, either the French are not sincere or fail for one reason or another to bring Germany into the orbit of the regional pact arrangement, the Conference may well have lent itself to unfortunate practices.
Illustrative of how States view the conclusions of the Security Committee from a special standpoint, I enclose a copy of an article from the Journal des Nations of June 26th and an office translation thereof.41 The Journal des Nations, I am told on the best authority, is now entirely under the influence of the Little Entente, the Poles lately having withdrawn their participation.
Respectfully submitted,