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[Enclosure]
Bases of Agreement
(March 1, 1931)
A.—Vessels whose Tonnage is
Regulated by the Treaty of Washington
I.—Capital Ships.
- (a)
- Before the 31st December, 1936, France and Italy may
respectively complete two capital ships, the displacement of
each of which will not exceed 23,333 tons and the gun calibre of
which will not exceed 12 inches.
- (b)
- On completion of each of these ships, France will scrap one
ship of the Diderot class; similarly,
Italy will scrap approximately 16,820 tons of first-class
over-age cruisers (making a total of 33,640 tons).
- (c)
- Without prejudice to a general revision of the capital-ship
tonnages established by the Treaty of Washington, and in order
to facilitate the conclusion of the present arrangement, the
total tonnage in this category accorded to France and Italy
respectively under the treaty shall be raised from 175,000 tons
to 181,000 tons.
II.—Aircraft Carriers.
Before the 31st December, 1936, France and Italy may complete
respectively 34,000 tons of aircraft carriers.
Note to I and II.—The French and Italian
Governments will give one another as long notice as possible of
their intention to seek parliamentary authority for the construction
of any ships in either of these two categories.
The above provisions will be included in an exchange of letters
between the Ministers of Marine of France and Italy, except the
provision contained in paragraph I (c) which
will form the subject of a special protocol or declaration.
B.—Vessels whose Tonnage is
Regulated by the Treaty of London
France and Italy will conform to the following rules in preparing
their programmes for construction to be completed before the 31st
December, 1936:—
(a) Cruisers with Guns of more than 6.1-inch (155 m/m) Calibre.
No further construction after completion of the 1930 programme.
(b) Cruisers with Guns of 6.1-inch (155
m/m) Calibre or less and
Destroyers.
The tonnage of new construction to be completed shall not exceed the
tonnage which is replaceable in this category before the 31st
December,
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1936. Vessels
already over-age and vessels becoming overage during the period of
the treaty shall be scrapped on being replaced,* except in cases where
either France or Italy prefers to scrap instead an equivalent
tonnage belonging to the category of cruisers with guns of more than
6.1 inch (155 m/m) calibre.*
It is hereby declared that for the purpose of this arrangement the
Members of the British Commonwealth of Nations, France and Italy do
not intend to undertake the replacement before the 31st December,
1936, of any destroyer which will be under sixteen years of age on
that date. At the same time it is understood that if the present
agreement is brought to an end as a result of the deliberations of
the General Disarmament Conference of 1932, the right of replacement
under the replacement rules of the London Naval Treaty remains
intact.
(c) Submarines.
No further construction other than for completion of the 1930
programme and for the replacement of tonnage becoming over-age after
the 31st December, 1931. Over-age vessels shall be scrapped, except
where scrapping would result in the total submarine tonnage figure
falling below the submarine figure mentioned in article 16 of the
Treaty of London.
Subject to a general revision of the naval question in the course of
the Disarmament Conference of 1932, the tonnage of French submarines
in commission will not exceed, up to the 31st December, 1936, the
figure of 81,989 tons, representing at the present moment the
under-age tonnage of vessels built or building. The Members of the
British Commonwealth of Nations maintain that this figure of 81,989
tons is too high in relation to their destroyer figure of 150,000
tons under the London Naval Treaty, but they agree to notify the
other signatories of Part III of the Treaty of London that they will
not have recourse to article 21 of the London Treaty pending the
general revision of the naval question mentioned above. Should it
not be possible at the 1932 conference to arrive at a satisfactory
equilibrium between French submarine tonnage and British
Commonwealth destroyer tonnage, the Members of the British
Commonwealth of Nations will retain their right to make such
increase as they may judge necessary in their destroyer figure of
150,000 tons.
C.—General Provisions
- (a)
- France and Italy furthermore declare (1) that they will accept
all the provisions of Part III of the London Naval Treaty in so
far
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as it applies to
the Members of the British Commonwealth of Nations, the United
States of America and Japan; (2) that they will accept, in so
far as they are concerned, those provisions which are of general
application and which do not conflict with the provisions of the
present arrangement.
- (b)
- At the time of the signature of this arrangement a declaration
in the following sense would be signed either by the Members of
the British Commonwealth of Nations, France and Italy, or else
by all the parties to the London Treaty:—
It is understood that the present arrangement establishes
no permanent ratio in any category of ship as between
the Members of the British Commonwealth of Nations,
France and Italy. In particular, no precedent is being
created for the final solution of the question whether,
and if so in what manner, tonnage remaining over-age on
the 31st December, 1936, may ultimately be replaced.
