500.A15A4 General Committee/104
Address Delivered by Mr. Hugh S. Gibson, Acting Chairman of the American Delegation, Before the General Commission of the Conference, Geneva, July 20, 1932
Inasmuch as the resolution submitted by Doctor Beneš bears upon the proposals of President Hoover which I had the honor of laying before you some time ago I feel that I should make clear to the Commission the attitude of the American delegation at the outset of this discussion.
Naturally I should have preferred a resolution accepting still more definitely the details of the President’s plan but the American delegation feels that the present resolution contains the maximum of agreement which can now be achieved, all of which is in the direction of the President’s proposal and offers the best hope of eventual [Page 306] attainment of that goal. For this reason the American delegation does not hesitate to support the resolution realizing that it contains a provision that nothing shall preclude the possibility of pressing for more definite and far reaching measures at later steps of the Conference.
I wish to take this first opportunity since the conclusion of the general debate to express on behalf of the American delegation our sincere thanks to those governments which have given us their support by adhering to the President’s plan. We value their adherence because this support has made possible the measure of agreement registered in the resolution now before us.
I wish also to record my appreciation of the frank and friendly spirit of the delegates with whom we have been in constant consultation for the past ten days, for the real effort they have made to contribute to this result. Needless to say we are all grateful to Doctor Beneš for his unfailing energy and resourcefulness in helping to formulate this document.
The resolution represents a first step toward realistic disarmament since it contains an engagement for substantial reduction of the wide range of existing armaments. Hitherto all debates on this subject have been confined to methods. Now at last we are deciding what to do in the way of concrete measures of reduction and giving directions that methods be found for carrying out these measures. Therefore although the resolution does not go all the way on the plan proposed by the President it recognizes that this plan constitutes a goal and sets out on what seems a proper path to attain it, namely, the acceptance at once of certain principles contained therein, the establishment of means to consolidate them and the examination of others with a determination to attain the ends which they propose.
It is essential in considering a resolution of this character to recognize the means by which international agreements are made and recorded. All of us here recognize that the principle of unanimity in international gatherings is the bulwark of national independence and therefore when an agreement is reached as in the present case it represents not the point to which daring leaders have attained, nor even the position occupied by perhaps a great majority of states, but rather that point which the last straggler seeking the same goal has passed. Therefore the text of this resolution means that the opinion of the nations is much farther toward the goal we are seeking than we can record here. It likewise naturally means that, as the bulk of public opinion is ahead of this point, we may rest assured that the moderate accomplishment which we can reach now will serve merely as a base for further forward movement.
[Page 307]Let me single out for purposes of illustration the problem of bombardment aviation. The discussion in the General Commission revealed that a large group of delegations are now prepared to abolish bombardment aviation and prohibit bombardment from the air. However, in the intensive consultations which have gone on here during the past few weeks we have found that certain states have genuine difficulties still to surmount before they are in a position to agree to these measures. We have found no disposition to stand on the level of agreement set forth in the resolution as the last word on the subject; on the contrary, we have found a disposition to set the present measure of agreement as a point of departure, to devote the next phase of the work to finding a way over or around existing obstacles in the hope of agreeing upon more far-reaching measures.
Up to the present the world has never known the appeasement which will come to it through a general treaty for the limitation and reduction of armaments and the relief to every country from the danger of surprise by its neighbor and from the necessity for the costly competition in armaments and men. Once the world experiences this relief, tension will relax and we will be enabled with ease to go farther than has even been thought possible. I said in my opening speech that the best defense of a nation was the goodwill of its neighbors, and in my opinion the best way to attain that goodwill is to enter into engagements for reducing the means of attack against one another, and I consider the present resolution as the first step.
The present resolution contains for the first time definite commitments for general reductions of land material and effectives. It likewise takes into account the lessons of the last war when damage and destruction spread to the civil population, and contains the strict undertakings to prevent recurrence of this abuse. Above all, it recognizes the necessity for lightening the financial burdens which war and preparations for war impose upon the world, and proposes to contribute to economic recovery by deducing the means to these ends and giving assurance against competition either in quantity or quality of arms.
Global limitation of expenditure has been consistently opposed by my Government as applied to itself since it considers that such a method is unfair to a nation like the United States which has already drastically reduced its armaments and my Government has made clear that it cannot accept such a method for itself. However, the resolution leaves open the possibility for other governments to adopt this method as between themselves if they deem it desirable and useful in view of their special necessities and regional requirements. The resolution, however, accords with the position we have [Page 308] always maintained that any of these methods shall be destined to supplement and check direct limitation.
The resolution provides that the Conference shall go on working since the Bureau and various committees will carry on during the recess of the General Commission. Meanwhile the various governments undertake to see how much farther they can go to complete agreements. To activate this, however, we count on world public opinion, which was stimulated by the recent discussion and by the willingness that it revealed on the part of the heavily armed powers to do their share towards reduction of world levels of armament. The peoples of the world may not know the technical difficulties of disarmament but they have the will to surmount them, and it is on them that we count to make it possible on the resumption of the work of the Conference to achieve far more than this resolution consolidates at the close of this present phase of our labors.
There can be no question that the present resolution represents a great advance in our work here. When we cast our minds back to the atmosphere of caution and withholding in which this Conference opened and then consider the definite character of the undertakings in this resolution we realize that we have made a long and definite stride toward disarmament.
To summarize what I have in mind, we are at this time faced with alternative courses. We might, in view of the support which has been given to the President’s plan, summon the Conference to accept or reject it in its entirety. This would undoubtedly show an impressive body of opinion in favor of acceptance, but we must remember that no state is bound by a majority vote and that therefore such procedure would bring us no nearer to general agreement, which is essential to the realization of such a plan. The other course is to consolidate the measure of accord which we can reach now, to accept the principles which shall guide us and the methods we are to pursue to reach the goal which we have recognized in this resolution.
Therefore, I consider this resolution as the embodiment of those immediate steps of reduction and limitation which shall constitute a pledge of the intention of the nations of the world to attain that full measure of disarmament which the world expects.