500.A15A4 Steering Committee/213: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the American Delegate (Wilson)
255. Your 470, December 1, 3 p.m. I perceive grave objections to the establishment of any system of licenses under the control of an International Commission. A system under the domestic control of each government within its own jurisdiction, with the specific means for carrying out the system left in so far as possible to the decision of the several contracting parties, and with full publicity, appears preferable from every point of view. Any proposal for the setting up of any form of international supervision of privately owned factories in this country would be certain to arouse strong opposition in the Senate.
An examination of the laws and regulations of 30 of the States of the Union reveals that such systems of licenses for the manufacture of and traffic in arms as exist in any of those States have nothing to do with munitions of war, as such, but are designed solely for the prevention of crime and for the safety of the public against accidents resulting from carelessness in the storage and transportation of explosives. Such systems as may exist in the remaining 18 States are presumably of the same nature.
There is no federal system of licenses governing the manufacture of arms.
The only existing system of federal licenses governing the traffic in arms is that which is based upon the Joint Resolution of Congress, approved January 31, 1922,37 authorizing the President to issue proclamations restricting the exportation of arms and ammunition to any American country or to any country in which the United States exercises extraterritorial jurisdiction when such country is involved [Page 407] in civil strife. In pursuance of this authority the President has, at various times, issued proclamations prohibiting the exportation of arms or munitions of war to Brazil, China, Cuba, Honduras, Mexico and Nicaragua, except under licenses granted by the Secretary of State for each individual shipment. Such proclamations are at present in force in respect to China, Honduras and Nicaragua. The procedure prescribed for obtaining licenses and the criteria under which they are granted differ in detail to fit the conditions existing in the several countries. In general a license is granted for any particular shipment when the lawfully constituted authorities of the Government recognized by the United States desire that the shipment be permitted.
- 42 Stat. 361.↩