500.A14/639
Memorandum by the Secretary of State
The Persian Minister6 called and entered a protest against ratification by the Senate of the so-called Small Arms Convention agreed to at Geneva in 1925. The Minister rested his objection upon the ground that the Persian Gulf was made a prohibitory or neutral zone, as though it did not belong to Persia, with the result that the British, for example, were insisting upon the privilege of halting vessels in the Persian Gulf and examining them for arms, and otherwise interfering with the integrity and rights of the Gulf of Persia. He added that last October a committee of the League of Nations had decided that this provision in the small arms treaty was unfair to Persia and should not be retained. In reply, I stated that I had some weeks ago sent a letter to the Senate urging ratification of this treaty as it was; that I was not especially familiar with the clauses in the treaty to which his government now objected; that it was unfortunate his government had not made complaint at an earlier stage; but that I would be glad to examine the entire record in the matter and do whatever seemed to be fair and feasible in the circumstances.
- Ghaffar Khan Djalal.↩