893.113/278: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Great Britain (Harvey)
157. Your 220, May 24, 6 p.m.64
This Government is deeply gratified to note the ready acceptance on the part of the British Government of the proposal made by this Government in connection with the construction of naval vessels, arsenals and dockyards by the Chinese Government. The Italian and Japanese Governments have also given their adherence to the policy proposed and their assurance in this regard, as well as that of the British Government, has been telegraphed to the American Ambassador at Paris for the information of the French Government. Brief summaries of the Japanese and Italian Governments’ replies will be telegraphed you from Paris.
The Department also notes with satisfaction that the British Government,
as stated in the first paragraph of its note, desires the so-called
Chinese Arms Embargo placed on a more satisfactory basis. In this
connection the Department desires the British Government to know that
the Italian Government, in reply to representations from this
Government, has abandoned its reservation to the arms declaration signed
at Peking on May 5, 1919, and has given its assurance that no sales of
Italian arms and ammunition shall take place in China either to Chinese
buyers or to their agents of whatsoever nationality and that no more
deliveries will be made under contracts entered into either before or
after May 5, 1919. The British Government will recall that at the
Conference on the Limitation of Armament an effort was made to
strengthen the existing declaration, but that the Italian delegates were
not then prepared to
[Page 730]
adopt the
resolution which was offered and which as finally amended reads as
follows:—66
Since the Italian Government was not then in position to adopt the resolution the Japanese Government felt compelled to make a reservation which led to the withdrawal of the resolution. Now that the Italian Government has abandoned its reservation to the existing declaration the Government of the United States, if the Italian and Japanese Governments will now accept the above resolution, contemplates seeking also the approval of the other Governments which participated in the Conference. The Japanese Government has already been informally approached on the subject, and has indicated its approval to the Department.
You will communicate the above to the British Government but in so doing will explain that, as a first step in attaining the object sought by the British Government, the Department entertains some doubt whether it would be advisable to propose at this time going beyond the terms of the resolution above mentioned. Such a proposal might make it difficult to obtain the adoption of the resolution by the other Governments which participated in the Conference. For its own part this Government finds itself limited, with respect to the control over warlike material, by the terms of the statute which prohibits only the exportation to China of “arms and munitions of war.”