500.A15A5/493
Memorandum by Mr. Noel H. Field of the Division of Western European Affairs
Mr. Davis called me on the telephone this morning and told me he had had a most satisfactory talk with the President on the naval question. [Page 113] The President had said it would be perfectly all right to go ahead and show our hand to the British, telling them frankly that if they will accept 14 inch guns and 32 to 33,000 tons for capital ships, we will be prepared to try them out for a period and subsequently work out a new agreement on the basis of the experience gained. In the President’s view, the 14 inch gun is better than the 16 inch gun any way.
The President agreed with Mr. Davis that there might be an advantage in holding a conference this year and he was prepared to conclude an agreement with the British even without the Japanese.
Mr. Davis said the President had been thinking along the lines of using the Italo-Ethiopian conflict as a pretext for suggesting an extension of the Naval Treaties for a while. He thought we might propose that inasmuch as one of the parties to the Washington Treaty is at war, it would be a good thing for us just to let the Treaties continue for a year or two until that Power was in a better position to negotiate. Mr. Davis, however, pointed out to the President that this would not fit in with the British desire to retain overage cruisers. The President replied that that was all right and that the United States would in that case hold on to what it wanted also.