[Enclosure]
The Secretary of
State to the Secretary General of the League of
Nations (Drummond)
The communication which the Secretary General of the League of
Nations addressed to the Secretary of State of the United States of
America on November 21, 1921, has had careful consideration.
In that communication the Secretary General was so good as to bring
to the knowledge of the Secretary of State a resolution adopted on
October 1, 1921, by the Assembly of the League of Nations,
suggesting that the importance of ratifying the Arms Traffic
Convention of St. Germain, should be strongly impressed on all the
States signatories thereto, whether members of the League of Nations
or not, as well as the decision of the Council of the League that
the Assembly’s resolution should be brought to the notice of all
States which had not notified the League of their intentions on the
subject.
In reply to the inquiry made by the Secretary General in pursuance of
this action, whether the Government of the United States of America
is prepared to ratify the Convention of St. Germain, the Secretary
of State begs to state that the terms of the proposed Convention
have been carefully examined and that, while the Government of the
United States is in cordial sympathy with efforts to restrict
traffic in arms and munitions of war, it finds itself unable to
approve the provisions of the Convention and to give any assurance
of its ratification.
[Page 551]
The Secretary of State also desires to call attention to the fact
that the Government of the United States is desirous to cooperate
for the purpose of suitably controlling traffic in arms and
munitions and to this end the Congress of the United States has
already enacted legislation providing that whenever the President
finds that in any American country, or in any country in which the
United States exercises extraterritorial jurisdiction, conditions of
domestic violence exist, which are or may be promoted by the use of
arms or munitions of war procured from the United States and makes
proclamation thereof, it shall thereafter be unlawful to export,
except under such limitations and exceptions as the President
prescribes, any arms or munitions of war from any place in the
United States to such country until otherwise ordered by the
President or by Congress.82
Washington, July 28,
1922.
