Office of the Historian

724.3415/3708: Telegram

The Consul at Geneva (Gilbert) to the Secretary of State

Geneva, May 22, 1934—2 p.m.
[Received May 22—12:05 p.m.]

88. Consulate’s 83, May 19, 10 a.m. [p.m.?], paragraph 3.67 I find today (Secretariat was closed yesterday) that following private conversations with a number of delegates the Committee of Three late Saturday evening made extensive changes in the list of states to which the arms embargo communication was sent and also certain modifications in the communications. The nature of the communications and the revised list were determined on entirely new bases as follows:

(1)
A communication was sent to a total of 32 states derived from the following categories:
(a)
—The 13 states excepting Japan members of the Council last year, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Poland, Czechoslovakia, China, Spain, Guatemala, Irish Free State, Mexico, Panama.
(b)
—The 17 states on whose acceptance of the embargo proposal of 1933 certain of the states mentioned above conditioned their own acceptance, Argentine, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Denmark, United States, Finland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Peru, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, Yugoslavia.
(c)
—One state on account of its special position, Uruguay.
(d)
—One state as a new member of the Council this year, Australia.
(2)
—All communications were signed by Najera (Mexico) Chairman of the Committee of Three.
(3)
—The communications were not precisely identic but varied in certain elements by categories of states as follows:
(a)
—States which had accepted the embargo proposal of last year were reminded of this and to such of these states as had made their acceptance conditional on that of other states, it was suggested that they modify such conditions as far as possible.
(b)
—The bordering states were enjoined to interdict the transit of arms as well as reexport of arms.
(c)
—The communications to states formally approached for the first time on this subject were the same as that sent to the United States.

Unless I am instructed to the contrary I shall assume that the Department desire to be informed telegraphically as replies are received.68

Gilbert
  1. Ante, p. 66.↩

  2. The replies were reported to the Department by the Consul at Geneva, but in general these reports are not printed here, as the replies are published in League of Nations, Official Journal, July 1934, pp. 827–843, and ibid., November 1934, pp. 1594–1609.

    For a summary of the status of the embargo, see the report by the Secretary General on September 25, 1934, ibid., pp. 1610–1611.

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