500.A15/438: Telegram
The Secretary of State to
the Chief of the American Representation on the Preparatory
Commission (Gibson)
[Paraphrase]
Washington, March 22,
1927—6 p.m.
95. In reply to the inquiry made February 24 in your private letter to
Mr. Dorsey Richardson of the Division of Western European Affairs,29 on position to take
should necessity arise of defining this Government’s attitude toward an
economic blockade which the Council of the League of Nations might
declare under article XVI of the Covenant of the League, you will be
guided by the following statement:
- “1. The Government of the United States cannot become a
party to any agreement involving an undertaking on its part
to sever either trade or financial relations with any state
in any contingency, nor can it participate in any blockade
which may be decreed by any power or by any group of powers,
whether the blockade is decreed under the auspices of the
League of Nations or otherwise. No arrangement directly or
indirectly contemplating possibility of prohibiting or
restricting carrying on of trade or commerce by American
citizens with any other country or countries by institution
of an economic blockade can be entered into by the
Government of the United States.
- 2. This Government will not agree to any form of
international supervision or control of armaments. This
Government considers that, as far as it is concerned, sole
sanction for reduction and enforcement of any convention for
reduction or limitation of armaments is the good faith of
all the nations which are concerned; this good faith
naturally requires scrupulous observance on their part of
their treaty obligations.”
