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

811.113 Senate Investigation/10: Circular telegram

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Great Britain ( Bingham )

Washington , May 18, 1934—8 p.m.

The President today sent a message to the Senate¹ in support of its action² in appointing a committee to investigate the problems incident to the private manufacture of arms and munitions of war and the international traffic therein. He offered the fullest cooperation of the Executive Departments of the Government in furnishing the committee with any desired information in their possession and “their views on the adequacy or inadequacy of existing legislation and of the treaties to which the United States is a party for the regulation and control of the manufacture of and traffic in arms.”

The President stated that the evil of the uncontrolled private manufacture of and traffic in arms and munitions could not be dealt with by isolated action of any one country and that it was recognized as a field in which international action is necessary. He urged ratification of the 1925 Arms Traffic Convention³ as a concrete indication of the American people’s willingness to contribute toward the suppression of abuses which might have disastrous results for the entire world if permitted to continue unchecked.

The concluding paragraph of the President’s message reads as follows:

“It is my earnest hope that the representatives of the nations who will reassemble at Geneva on May 29⁴ will be able to agree upon a Convention containing provisions for the supervision and control of the traffic in arms much more far-reaching than those which were embodied in the Convention of 1925. Some suitable international organization must and will take such action. The peoples of many countries are being taxed to the point of poverty and starvation in order to enable governments to engage in a mad race in armament which, if permitted to continue, may well result in war. This grave menace to the peace of the world is due in no small measure to the uncontrolled activities of the manufacturers and merchants of engines of destruction, and it must be met by the concerted action of the peoples of all nations.”

Repeat to Paris, Berlin and Rome. A separate telegram is being sent Geneva.⁵

Hull

1. Congressional Record, vol. 78, pt. 8, p. 9095.
2. Pursuant to Senate Resolution 206, 73d Cong., 2d sess.; see ibid., pt. 6, p. 6485.
3. For text, see Foreign Relations, 1925, vol. i, p. 61; for correspondence concerning ratification by the United States, see post, pp. 449 ff.
4. Meeting of the General Commission of the General Disarmament Conference; see pp. 63 ff.
5. Telegram No. 155, May 18, 7 p.m., to the American delegate to the General Disarmament Conference; not printed.