Office of the Historian

500.A15A3/1868

Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Western European Affairs (Dunn)

[Washington,] December 30, 1936.

I asked Mr. Victor Mallet, Counselor of the British Embassy, to come to the Department this afternoon at three o’clock. When he arrived, I gave him an oral communication as follows:

The Government of the United States has noted that the Governments of Great Britain and Japan have found it necessary to invoke [Page 159] Article 21 of the London Naval Treaty of 1930 for the purpose of retaining tonnage in excess of the limits laid down in that Treaty. While this Government recognizes the right of the signatories of the Treaty to invoke Article 21, we regret that it has been found necessary to provide for this increase in naval armament.49

I explained to Mr. Mallet that the attitude expressed in this oral communication was the traditional attitude of this Government which is and has been continually in favor of a reduction and limitation in armaments. I called his attention in this connection to the statement contained in a letter from the President to Mr. Norman Davis,50 which letter was read into the official record of the London Naval Conference of 1936, and recalled also to Mr. Mallet’s attention the speech of Mr. Norman Davis at the termination of that same Conference.51 Both the President’s letter and Mr. Davis’ speech indicated that this Government did not desire that the limits of tonnage provided for in the Washington Treaty of 192252 and the London Treaty of 1930 be exceeded and furthermore that this Government would not take the initiative in exceeding those limits.

Mr. Mallet stated that he understood thoroughly the position of this Government in that regard and realized that this was merely a restatement of policy which had been announced continually over a long period.

James Clement Dunn
  1. An identic statement was given by Mr. Dooman, of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs, to the Counselor of the Japanese Embassy at the Department of State, December 30.↩
  2. Dated October 5, 1934; for text, see Department of State Conference Series No. 24: The London Naval Conference, 1935, Report of the Delegates of the United States of America, Text of the London Naval Treaty and Other Documents (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1936), pp. 52–53.↩
  3. Ibid., pp. 73–77.↩
  4. Signed February 6, 1922, Foreign Relations, 1922, vol. i, p. 247.↩