500.A15A5/115: Telegram

The Chargé in France (Marriner) to the Secretary of State

473. Piétri, Minister of Marine, who is accompanying Barthou5 to London on July 8, asked me to call on him in order to let me know that he was approaching the naval conversations in London without having authorized any 35,000-ton battleship for France even though Italy had made such authorization. He felt that France had no necessity for a type of this size and said that they felt that they did not necessarily have to consider the sizes of ships used by Great Britain and America. He likewise said that France might be prepared if all went well to be more lenient in respect to limitation by categories than hitherto. He told me that he had pointed out to the British that the possibility of equality of rights might be raised on the subject of naval armaments but he agreed that the principal question to be settled was whether or not the five powers signatories to the existing treaties wished to prolong them in their general outline and he felt that Japan while endeavoring to obtain a change of ratio would be extremely reluctant to give up the advantages gained by the Washington Treaty.

Text of memorandum of conversation6 follows by pouch, cipher text mailed to London.

Marriner
  1. Jean Louis Barthou, French Minister for Foreign Affairs.
  2. Not printed.