500.A15A4 General Committee/928: Telegram

The Chairman of the American Delegation (Davis) to the Secretary of State

849. 1. I had several interesting conversations with Simon and Eden yesterday who assure me they wish more than anything else to cooperate with us and I believe they are receptive to constructive ideas in any direction in which we can take a similar position. Having failed in their efforts during the past six months to bring about agreement they will refuse or be reluctant to resume the initiative again unless they know that they can count upon our cooperation. I think that my speech today will help in that direction.

2. Eden told me last night very confidentially that they want very much to get an agreement on disarmament but that they want to get it quickly and are ready to do anything possible to get it if it can be done quickly but that they do not want to get jockeyed into a position of keeping the Conference going for 6 months longer in obviously futile discussions for the purpose of putting off an admission of failure in the hope that some solution will be found because in the meantime Germany will be rearming particularly in the air and England will then find herself in the position of having Germany stronger in the air than she is; and that so long as the Conference is going it will be difficult for the British Government in the face of public opinion to increase materially their air armaments.

3. As I find the situation here, no nation seems willing to assume the responsibility of proposing a liquidation of the Conference. France and the Little Entente would perhaps prefer a termination if it could be done in such a way as to throw all the blame on Germany but they will continue to profess a strong desire to have the Conference continue and also will endeavor to have it continue by futile negotiations that will enable them to avoid coming to grips with the real concessions and decisions that must be made if there is to be an agreement.

4. The situation which we now face and which has definitely materialized since last October when Germany left the Conference is that Germany has actually rearmed to a considerable extent, particularly in aviation. It was very stupid and reprehensible for Germany to do this and for her to have left the Conference last October when we were so near an agreement. There are, however, certain indications from Eden’s conversations in Germany and the German note of April 16th to the British56 that isolation plus their increasingly precarious economic [Page 77] situation has made the Germans more amenable and more desirous of an agreement. On the other hand, they will not sign an agreement that does not legalize a measure of rearmament. The French, on the other hand, have stated emphatically and repeatedly that they will not agree to the legalization of any measure of German rearmament, at least under the present mandate of the Conference. They intimate, however, that they might agree to this through a fresh mandate, either through a disarmament committee appointed by the Council of the League or through a fresh mandate from the Council to this Conference. This, in my opinion, would depend largely upon their ability in the meantime to complete an Eastern Locarno which Barthou told me about in Paris.

5. I fully sympathize with the French apprehension with regard to the pacific intentions of Germany. However, while the French refuse to legalize actual German rearmament and to keep it within controlled and justifiable limits they apparently have no intention of taking any effective measures otherwise to stop rearmament because they are more afraid of the after effects in France of coercive measures against Germany than they are of German rearmament. Their position is a very difficult one. One thing, however, which makes them postpone facing the facts and deciding upon one course or the other is because they are convinced that there is no immediate danger of war in Europe. They are convinced that Germany would not attempt for several years to commence a fight and they hope in the meantime that changes within Germany itself or combinations which they may be able to make for the encirclement of Germany may protect them.

6. I am profoundly convinced that the only sensible course for France to pursue is, with the aid of England which she can get, to agree upon a program of progressive disarmament and limitation which would keep German rearmament within control.

Davis
  1. Great Britain, Cmd. 4559, p. 18.