500.A14/675: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the American Delegate (Wilson)
444. Your 912, June 23, 2 p.m. A note of August 11 from the Persian Minister reads in part as follows:
“The latest report from our representative at the League of Nations is to the effect that the League of Nations Committee, including the American representative, voted for the revision of the Geneva [Convention]. They also made certain alterations in the Convention which were approved by the American representative on the Committee. One of the alterations was with reference to the prohibited zone, the Committee proposing that it should be confined to the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, and that the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman be exempted from the prohibited zone. They proposed further that control of arms traffic in the Persian Gulf should be left to an arrangement or agreement between Persia and England.
That is the decision of the League of Nations Committee in which your representative has participated, and which he has approved.”
What justification is there for any of these statements? Please telegraph fully referring to Conference Documents when possible.