500.A15A4 General Committee (Arms)/57a
The Secretary of State to President Roosevelt
My Dear Mr. President: I authorized Mr. Wilson to present a revised draft of a Convention for the International Supervision and Control of the Manufacture of and Trade in Arms and Munitions of War to the meeting of the Bureau of the General Disarmament Conference, which met at Geneva on November 20, 1934. This draft was referred to Committees which will meet in January. In the meantime, it will be circulated to the governments, including our own, for their consideration and such criticisms, suggestions and amendments as they may wish to present.
In the preparation of this Draft Convention the Department has been greatly indebted to the War Department which, in a spirit of helpful cooperation, made valuable and constructive suggestions, which were the result of a painstaking study of the whole question. The draft which I authorized Mr. Wilson to present to the Bureau contains, nevertheless, several features which do not meet with the approval of the War Department. A letter which I have received from the Secretary of the Navy makes it clear that he shares the misgiving of the War Department on these points.
The most important of the features referred to are the following:
- (1)
- The Draft Convention in its present form provides for the supervision and control of the manufacture of arms by each High Contracting Party within its own jurisdiction in conformity with a definite procedure and subject to full publicity—except, of course, in respect to specifications, composition of materials, et cetera. This supervision and control is made to include the supervision and control of arms and munitions manufactured by a State for its own armed forces. Such arms the War Department would prefer to have excepted from the provisions of the Convention.
- (2)
- The system of permanent and automatic inspection to ensure the carrying out of the Convention is provided for in some detail. It authorizes the Permanent Disarmament Commission to send Committees into the territories of the High Contracting Parties to carry on investigations at any place which they may consider convenient to the purpose in hand. These Committees are prohibited from obtaining information as to technical details of design, physical and chemical composition of materials, processes of manufacture and other similar matters, which may constitute a trade or defense secret. They are, nevertheless, authorized to inspect Government arsenals and private factories for the purpose of ascertaining the quantities of arms and munitions in process of manufacture or in stock. The War Department would prefer to have the seat of these investigations restricted to the capitals of the Contracting Parties and the procedure restricted to the examination of witnesses and of documents.
In authorizing Mr. Wilson to present a text embodying the features outlined above, I felt that I was acting in accordance with your policy and with the ideas which you have expressed on several occasions, and notably in your conversation19 with Mr. Phillips and Mr. Green20 on May 28. Before proceeding further in the negotiation of this Convention, I should be grateful if I could receive your assurance that I have indeed reflected your views in authorizing Mr. Wilson to present to the Bureau a Draft Convention containing these features.
I am, my dear Mr. President,
Faithfully yours,