Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1934, General, the British Commonwealth, Volume I

500.A15A5/69: Telegram

The Chairman of the American Delegation to the General Disarmament Conference ( Davis ) to the Secretary of State

Geneva , May 29, 1934—11 p.m.
[Received May 29—8:45 p.m.]

851. Your 201, May 24, 2 p.m., to Paris.

1. I have not deemed it advisable as yet to have the conversation with Simon suggested in the final paragraph. I have deferred doing so because we have been immersed in Disarmament Conference problems.

2. I did take occasion incidentally to tell him that I did not think much of his speech in the House of Commons in which he quoted from my declaration of May 22, 1933,⁵³ as it appeared to be an effort to place upon us the failure of the British Government to go as far as France wants her to go in a disarmament convention. He was visibly embarrassed and insisted that I had misunderstood and that he thought he had rendered full justice to the great value of our contribution and that the purpose he had in mind was primarily to explain to the British public that the imposition of economic sanctions is not such a simple matter. Later in the conversation with regard to the Disarmament Conference as to which he was rather despondent he remarked that he would be reconciled to a failure of the Disarmament Conference and even of the Naval Conference in 1935 and would in fact feel that they had been worthwhile if the result were a naval agreement and a closer cooperation between England and the United States. Although this was not said in a very serious way I could not but feel that it revealed a real desire on his part.

Davis

53. For text of declaration, see Department of State, Press Releases, May 27, 1933, p. 387.