500.A15A4 Air Armaments/72: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Acting Chairman of the American Delegation (Gibson)
119. Your 224, May 31, 10 p.m. This Government has in the past years made several efforts to persuade other nations to conclude a convention which would put into effect the rules contained in the Report of the Commission of Jurists drawn up at The Hague in 1923. Inasmuch as their primary purpose is to restrict aerial warfare as far as possible to military objectives, you may regard these rules as a satisfactory basis for elaboration. You may find it possible so to extend the rules as to protect civilian populations yet more effectively (see Point 5, your speech of February 926). We are asking the War and Navy Departments if they are prepared to furnish us with detailed suggestions along this line.