Office of the Historian

500.A15A5 Construction/167: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Kennedy)24

Washington, May 10, 1938—1 p.m.

206. Your 384, May 7, 2 p.m. The figure 45,000 tons was reached after careful study of our needs and as indicated in our 191, May 3, 6 p.m. represents the lowest figure which we would be able to accept as a new upper limit for capital ships of subcategory (a). It was largely in the light of the considerations again advanced to you by the British that we agree to set an upper limit at all. We think the time has come for you to point out to the British that we are prepared either to conclude an exchange of notes on a 45,000 ton 16-inch gun basis, or else to recognize that it has not been found possible for the parties to the Treaty to agree on an upper limit for tonnage and armament with the result that each power would retain complete freedom.

Hull
  1. Marginal notation reads: “OK FDR.” See also letter of April 27 from the Acting Secretary of State to the President, Foreign Relations, The Soviet Union, 1933–1939, p. 683.↩