500.A15A4/2599: Telegram
The Adviser to the American Delegation (Mayer) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 6—9:55 a.m.]
941. Davis’ 19, November 1, 10 p.m., from London. Henderson issued a statement (Conference Document Bureau 68) last night at Geneva embodying the plan referred to in the above telegram. The statement addressed to the members of the Bureau was likewise communicated to the members of the General Commission. After briefly reviewing the situation to date the President’s statement continues as follows:
“In the opinion of the President the changes which have taken place since June last and the probable trend of political events in this respect make it incumbent on the Bureau to reconsider its method of work without prejudicing the principles underlying the commitments entered into by the General Commission in virtue of the resolution adopted last summer.
It is therefore the opinion of the President that conditions are now such as to make it necessary to postpone until after the beginning of the coming year an attempt to deal with the problems of disarmament and to modify the procedure of the Conference both as regards the questions which should become the immediate concern of the Conference and also the manner in which they should be approached.
Consequently the President ventures to put forward for the consideration of the members of the Bureau the following proposals:
[Page 175]The Conference and its various organs have so far produced a certain amount of work in which agreement has either been reached or is in sight. The procedure which has been followed so far had in view the conclusion of a complete text of a convention which would have been submitted as a whole for the signature and ratification of the countries represented at the Conference. In the opinion of the President the time has come when such questions as are considered ripe may be advantageously embodied in separate protocols coming into force one by one without the Conference having necessarily to wait for the completion of the entire convention.
Some of the subjects which are sufficiently advanced to come within this category are the following:
- (a)
- The question of the regulation of the manufacture of and trade in armaments,
- (b)
- The question of budgetary publicity,
- (c)
- The setting-up of the Permanent Disarmament Commission.
The President thinks that there are other questions which the Conference may find so mature as to be susceptible of similar treatment.
On the other hand it should not be forgotten that the air question in the June resolution has not yet even been considered by the appropriate committee and should therefore begin at the earliest opportunity when the negotiations concerning them have sufficiently prepared the ground.
The President invites the members of the Bureau to be good enough to reflect on the advantages [of] this procedure with which he hopes they will concur when the Bureau holds its next meeting which he convokes for the morning of November 20th at 10:30 a.m.
In issuing this statement the President wishes to emphasize the fact that the fundamental aim of the Conference has been and remains for the future the completion of a comprehensive disarmament convention. It was to this definite program that the states represented at the Conference solemnly pledged themselves in the resolution which was unanimously adopted on June 8th.”
Copy of statement mailed Davis, London.