500.A15A5 Construction/152
The British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Halifax) to the American Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Kennedy)18
No. A2452/55/45
[London,] 31 March, 1938.
Your Excellency: With reference to Article 25 of the Naval Treaty signed in London on the 25th March, 1936, I have the honour in accordance with paragraph (2) of that Article, to notify Your Excellency that His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom find it necessary to exercise the right reserved in paragraph (1) of effecting a departure from the limitations and restrictions of the Treaty.
- 2.
- The proposed departure relates to the upper limits of capital ships of sub-category (a). The precise extent of the departure will depend on the result of the consultations provided for in paragraph (3) of Article 25.
- 3.
- The reasons for the above proposed departure consist in the reports received by His Majesty’s Government to the effect that Japan is constructing or has authorised the construction of capital ships of a tonnage not in conformity with the limitations and restrictions of the Treaty. In view of the refusal of the Japanese Government, on being formally approached, to give assurances that these reports are ill-founded, His Majesty’s Government have no alternative but to regard them as being substantially correct.
I have [etc.]