500.A15A5/760
The Under Secretary of State (Phillips) to President Roosevelt
My Dear Mr. President: In your memorandum of March 21, 1936, you raise the question as to whether, if prior to ratification of the Naval Treaty, another Power should engage in a large amount of building, the United States would have the right to make up for any deficiencies at a future date.
An examination of the terms of the Treaty shows that the interests of the United States in this respect are fully protected. Inasmuch as the Treaty contains no quantitative limitation whatsoever—aside from the holiday in the construction of cruisers exceeding 8,000 tons—,the United States will be free, even after the Treaty has gone into effect, to build any amount of vessels it desires in any category other than cruisers exceeding 8,000 tons. As regards the cruiser holiday, you will recall that we agreed to this provision on the understanding—made explicit in a statement before the Conference by Mr. Davis—that we would be free to invoke the “escape clause” in the Article relating to the cruiser holiday in the event that Great Britain should engage in an amount of cruiser construction in excess of that foreshadowed in the recent White Paper on British defense policy. Since it is a physical impossibility for Great Britain to exceed her announced program within the period allotted for ratification of the Treaty, no difficulty will arise under this head. In any case, paragraph (1) of the Protocol of Signature—which I quote below—serves as a protection against any excessive building in the period before the Treaty goes into effect:
“If, before the coming into force of the above-mentioned treaty, the naval construction of any Power or any change of circumstances should appear likely to render undesirable the coming into force of the treaty in its present form, the Governments of the countries on behalf of which the treaty has been signed shall consult as to whether it is desirable to modify any of its terms to meet the situation thus presented.”
Faithfully yours,
[The Treaty for the Limitation of Naval Armament was signed at London, March 25, 1936; for text, see Department of State, Treaty Series No. 919; 50 Stat. 1363; or Report of the Delegates of the United States …, page 27.
The signatory states which ratified the treaty, together with the date of deposit at London of the instruments of ratification were as [Page 101] follows: United States of America, July 2, 1936 (treaty ratified by the President, May 28, 1936); France, June 24, 1937; United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and India, July 29, 1937.
A protocol signed on June 30, 1938, at London by the signatories to the treaty of 1936 gave formal approval to the fixing of a new limitation of 45,000 tons to the tonnage of capital ships; see Department of State, Press Releases, July 2, 1938, page 10; Department of State Executive Agreement Series No. 127, and 53 Stat. 1921.]