500.A15A4 General Committee/938: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Chairman of the American Delegation ( Davis )
417. Your 842, May 27, 3 p.m. I have given careful consideration to the problem you present and have consulted the President who has approved the reply which follows.
Although I am still hopeful that it may be possible to negotiate a General Disarmament Convention in which provisions for the supervision and control of the manufacture of and trade in arms may be incorporated, nevertheless if that proves impossible this Government would be prepared to enter into a separate convention on this subject.
Of the three possible methods indicated in your second paragraph the first is acceptable provided an international system of inspection is organized to supervise the operation of the plan. We recognize that it may not result in the elimination of all of the evils arising from the private manufacture of and international traffic in arms but, properly established and properly administered, with full world publicity, it should go a long way toward eliminating those evils, and the full publicity which should be an integral part of the plan would enable this Government and other governments to evaluate intelligently any evils which may persist after it is put into operation. We should then be in a position to deal with those evils. See my No. 415, May 24, 5 p.m., and previous instructions on this subject.
The second method is unacceptable to this Government.
The third method is open to the objection that the great majority of the nations of the world would be placed at the mercy of the ten or a dozen nations favored by nature with supplies of raw materials and possessed of the necessary industrial organization. They would be obliged to establish arsenals and total production of arms and ammunition and the total of accumulated stocks would probably increase. The elimination of all private manufacture of arms and munitions is admirable as an ultimate objective, but this method does not seem feasible at this time, unless some new plan can be worked out to take care of the problem of the non-producing nations.