Office of the Historian

500.A14/675: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in France (Straus)

Washington, June 25, 1934—6 p.m.

251. No. 912, June 23, 2 p.m., from Amdelgat, Geneva, to the Department, and previous telegrams in regard to the Senate’s reservation included in the resolution giving advice and consent to the ratification of the Arms Traffic Convention of 1925.

Please discuss this matter fully and confidentially with the Foreign Office with a view to ascertaining the reaction of the French Government to possible ratification by this Government, with the reservation. You may point out that the reservation literally interpreted has little if any significance. It does not ascribe to Persia any rights which she does not already possess. You may also point out that ratification with this reservation would not imply any intention on the part of either the President or the Senate to interfere with the status quo in the Persian Gulf or to take any part whatever in any disputes which have arisen or may arise in respect to rights to territory in that part of the world.

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Would the French Government consider it necessary to obtain the acceptance of this reservation by the other contracting parties?

Repeat mutatis mutandis—except the final paragraph—to London as No. 267.

Hull