711.00111 Armament Control/20a
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Italy ( Long )40
Sir: I enclose, for your information, a copy of S. J. Res. 173, which was approved by the President on August 31, 1935.
This Joint Resolution was based upon (a) an informal draft41 of suggested legislation to modify our neutrality policy which was submitted by the Department to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations at the request of the Chairman of that Committee, and upon (b) a bill to provide for the supervision and control of the manufacture of and international traffic in arms, ammunition and implements of war, which was drafted by the Department and which had the support of the Department.42 I enclose a copy of H. J. Res. 38643 which embodied without modification the suggestions referred to under (a) above. I enclose also a copy of H. R. 878844—the bill referred to under (b) above—and a copy of the report of the hearings on that bill before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. You will note that the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in combining these two bills omitted several provisions of importance and introduced fundamental modifications in some of the provisions which were retained.
I enclose a copy of the statement issued to the press from the White House at the time the President signed the Joint Resolution. As Section 1 of the Joint Resolution expires on February 29, 1936, and as certain provisions of Section 2 may not prove to be satisfactory in practice, it appears probable that the subjects dealt with in this Joint Resolution will receive further consideration at the next session of Congress.
Very truly yours,
- Identic instructions sent on the same date to the Chargé in Ethiopia (No. 16), The Chargé in France (No. 1047), The Chargé in the United Kingdom (No. 968), the Consul at Geneva (unnumbered), and the American delegate to the Disarmament Conference at Geneva (unnumbered).↩
- Ante, p. 346.↩
- Ante, p. 336.↩
- Congressional Record, vol. 79, pt. 12, p. 13597.↩
- Ibid., pt. 11, p. 11607.↩