Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1932, General, Volume I

500.A15A4 General Committee/120

Resolution Adopted by the General Commission on July 23, 1932⁶³

July 23, 1932

i.

The Conference for the Reduction and Limitation of Armaments,

Profoundly convinced that the time has come when all nations of the world must adopt substantial and comprehensive measures of disarmament in order to consolidate the peace of the world, to hasten the resumption of economic activity, and to lighten the financial burdens which now weigh upon the peoples of the world;

Desirous of avoiding a competition in the power of armaments which would be both ruinous to the peoples and threatening to their national defence;

Recalling its resolutions of April 19th, 20th and 22nd, 1932;

Firmly determined to achieve a first decisive step involving a substantial reduction of armaments, on the basis of Article 8 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, and as a natural consequence of the obligations resulting from the Briand-Kellogg Pact;

Welcoming heartily the initiative taken by the President of the United States of America in formulating concrete proposals for a substantial reduction of armaments by the prohibition of certain methods of warfare, by the abolition of certain material, and by reductions varying in magnitude and amounting for certain armaments to the proportion of one-third;

Bearing in mind also that draft Convention of the Preparatory Commission, the statements and proposals made to the Conference by a number of delegations, and the reports and resolutions of the various Commissions of the Conference:

Decides forthwith and unanimously, guided by the general principles underlying President Hoover’s declaration:

1. That a substantial reduction of world armaments shall be effected to be applied by a general Convention alike to land, naval and air armaments;

2. That a primary objective shall be to reduce the means of attack.

ii. conclusions of the first phase of the conference

The Conference, noting that agreement has now been reached on a certain number of important points, decides, without prejudice to more far-reaching agreements hereafter, to record forthwith the following concrete measures of disarmament, which should form part of the general Convention to be concluded. The Conference also decides to establish certain principles as the basis for further reductions of armaments, and to determine the procedure necessary for the active prosecution of its work.

1. Air Forces

The Conference, deeply impressed with the danger overhanging civilisation from bombardment from the air in the event of future conflict, and determined to take all practicable measures to provide against this danger, records at this stage of its work the following conclusions:

1. Air attack against the civilian population shall be absolutely prohibited;

2. The High Contracting Parties shall agree as between themselves that all bombardment from the air shall be abolished, subject to agreement with regard to measures to be adopted for the purpose of rendering effective the observance of this rule.

These measures should include the following:

(a) There shall be effected a limitation by number and a restriction by characteristics of military aircraft;

(b) Civil aircraft shall be submitted to regulation and full publicity. Further, civil aircraft not conforming to the specified imitations shall be subjected to an international regime (except for certain regions where such a regime is not suitable) such as to prevent effectively the misuse of such civil aircraft.

2. Land Armaments

(a) Land Artillery.

1. All heavy land artillery of calibres between any maximum limit as determined in the succeeding paragraph and a lower limit to be defined shall be limited in number.

2. The limitation of calibre of land artillery shall be fixed by the Convention.

Subject to an effective method being established to prevent the rapid transformation of guns on fixed mountings into mobile guns, different maxima for the calibre of land guns may be fixed as follows:

(a) A maximum limit for the calibre of coastal guns, which shall not be less than the maximum calibre of naval guns;

(b) A maximum limit for the calibre of guns in permanent frontier or fortress defensive systems;

(c) A maximum limit for the calibre of mobile land guns (other than guns employed for coastal defence).

(b) Tanks.

The maximum unit tonnage of tanks shall be limited.

3. Chemical, Bacteriological and Incendiary Warfare

Chemical, bacteriological and incendiary warfare shall be prohibited under the conditions unanimously recommended by the Special Committee.

4. Supervision

There shall be set up a Permanent Disarmament Commission with the constitution, rights and duties generally as outlined in Part VI of the draft Convention submitted by the Preparatory Commission for the Disarmament Conference, with such extension of its powers as may be deemed by the Conference necessary to enable the Convention to be effectively applied.

iii. preparation of the second phase of the conference

The Conference requests the Bureau to continue its work during the period of adjournment of the General Commission, with a view to framing, with the collaboration (if necessary) of a Drafting Committee, draft texts concerning the questions on which agreement has already been reached. Such texts will be communicated to all delegations as soon as they are drafted, and will then be submitted to the Commission.

Points which call for detailed examination will be examined by the Bureau or by the appropriate Committees, with the assistance of the Governments concerned, in order that definite conclusions may be reached as soon as the General Commission meets again.

The questions which will form the subject of such examination are the following:

I. Effectives

A strict limitation and a real reduction of effectives shall be brought about.

For this purpose, the Conference invites the Bureau to examine, with the collaboration of such delegations as it considers necessary, the proposal of President Hoover relating to effectives. These studies should take into consideration, in the case of each country, the actual conditions of defence and the number and character of its forces.

2. Limitation of National Defence Expenditure

(a) The Conference shall decide on the resumption of its labours, taking into account the special conditions of each State, what system of limitation and publicity of expenditure on national defence will provide the peoples with the best guarantee of an alleviation of their financial burdens, and will prevent the measures of qualitative and quantitative disarmament to be inserted in the Convention from being neutralised by increases or improvements in authorised armaments.

(b) With a view to the decisions to be taken under this head, the Conference requests the Committee on National Defence Expenditure and its technical Committee to continue and complete the work entrusted to its organs and to submit their report as soon as possible. The Conference requests its Bureau to draw up, on the basis of this report, a plan accomplishing the purpose aimed at and taking into consideration the special conditions of the various States.

3. Trade in and Manufacture of Arms

The Bureau will set up a special Committee to submit proposals to the Conference, immediately on the resumption of its work, in regard to the regulations to be applied to the trade in and private and State manufacture of arms and implements of war.

4. Naval Armaments

As regards the proposals made by President Hoover and other related proposals concerning naval armaments, the Conference invites the Powers parties to the Naval Treaties of Washington and London, which have already produced important results, to confer together and to report to the General Commission, if possible before the resumption of its work, as to the further measures of naval reduction which might be feasible as a part of the general programme of disarmament.

The Conference further invites the naval Powers other than the Powers parties to the above Treaties to make arrangements for determining the degree of naval limitation they are prepared to accept in view of the Washington and London Treaties and the general programme of disarmament envisaged in the present resolution.

The Bureau will be kept informed of the progress of these negotiations, which it will be its duty to co-ordinate within the framework of the General Convention in preparation for the comprehensive decisions of the General Commission.

5. Violations

Rules of international law shall be formulated in connection with the provisions relating to the prohibition of the use of chemical, bacteriological and incendiary weapons and bombing from the air, and shall be supplemented by special measures dealing with infringement of these provisions.

6. Future Work of the Conference: Procedure

Pending the resumption of the meetings of the General Commission, the Bureau will keep the delegations informed of the progress of the work.

It will be for the Bureau to fix the date of the next meeting of the General Commission with one month’s notice. The meeting of the General Commission shall take place not later than four months after the resumption of the work of the Bureau, which will meet during the week beginning September 19th, 1932.

iv. general provisions

The present Resolution in no way prejudges the attitude of the Conference towards any more comprehensive measures of disarmament or towards the political proposals submitted by various delegations.

v. armaments truce

In order to ensure that, pending the resumption of the meetings of the General Commission and during the second phase of its work, no steps shall be initiated by any Power which might prejudice the preparation of the General Disarmament Convention, the Conference decides to recommend to the Governments to renew for a period of four months from November 1st, 1932, the truce provided for by the resolution of the Assembly of the League of Nations of September 29th, 1931.

63. Text transmitted to the Department by Mr. Gibson under covering letter of July 27.