500.A15A4 General Committee (Arms)/156: Telegram
The Chargé in the United Kingdom (Atherton) to the Secretary of State
[Received March 20—10:05 a.m.]
122. In reply to a request from Minister Wilson I wrote to him on March 13 outlining a conversation with Eden (copy en route to [Page 35] the Department by the pouch57). For consideration in connection with Geneva’s 1017, March 19, 6 p.m., I venture to cable following summary.
Eden felt there was no chance of any change in British position regarding inspection. He personally, however, felt a compromise was possible “in some such scheme as the mandate idea”; that each country would report their production and would be subject to questioning if the information supplied appeared to be unsatisfactory. He specifically cited that if a nation’s figures seemed abnormally small or abnormally large it could be questioned and further information requested. He also said information furnished as to export of war material might form another subject of international questioning.
Eden repeated the substance of views expressed in my 91, March 5, 6 p.m., but laid great emphasis on the fact that while inspection on the spot of, say the manufacture of 6–inch guns, would only entail inspection of some half a dozen factories in this country; for example, the inspection of small arms—he referred particularly to machine guns—would involve such a detailed survey of a nation’s plants by such a large personnel as to be almost unworkable; however, they had told the French that they were prepared to do this as part of a limitation of armaments convention and that the French could work out the details since they were optimistic of its practicability.
- Not found in Department files.↩