500.A15A4 General Committee (Arms)/12

Memorandum by the American Delegation to the General Disarmament Conference 25

Trade in and Manufacture of Arms

It was suggested that within the scope of the Convention for the Limitation and Reduction of Armaments the Committee on the Manufacture [Page 121] of and Trade in Arms might usefully base its programme of work upon a consideration of the following points:

1.
That national responsibility for the manufacture of and traffic in arms be specified in the Convention.
2.
That qualitative and quantitative limitation in the Convention be the primary bases for measures for the restriction and control of the manufacture and export of arms.
3.
That the manufacture of and the traffic in arms be subjected to national control by means of:
A.
General licences for manufacture;
B.
Special visas for export;
C.
Publicity:
(1)
For orders for manufacture,
(2)
For all production, both State and private,
(3)
For exports and imports,
(4)
Prompt transmission to the Permanent Disarmament Commission by signatories of information on:
a.
All licences as soon as issued;
b.
All orders as soon as received by licensee;
c.
Shipments for export as soon as made;
d.
Annual reports of all production and imports.
4.
That some international body, such as the Permanent Disarmament Commission, be empowered to coordinate the execution of the various provisions of the Convention by:
A.
Consideration of publicity;
B.
Checking against quantitative and qualitative limitations of the Convention;
C.
Causing continuous and automatic inspections to be made—except for processes, trade secrets, and administration of manufacturing concerns.
5.
That increases in armaments for countries entitled thereto under the Convention be made by stages which are to be specified in the Convention.
6.
That replacement programmes are to be executed by stages over a period of years, and notified in advance to the international body charged with the supervision and execution of the provisions of the Convention.
7.
That categories appearing in provisions for the control and supervision of the manufacture of and trade in arms be reconsidered, and brought into harmony with the provisions of the Convention relating to material.

  1. A note on the original states: “Memorandum by the U. S. A. delegation in regard to the statement made by the U. S. A. representative during the informal conversation between the French, United Kingdom and U. S. A. delegations on Thursday, 14th June, 1934, at 5 p.m. in the Secretariat.” No record of the informal conversation has been found in Department files.

    The memorandum was filed as an annex to the Report to the General Commission adopted on July 2, 1934, by the Committee for the Regulation of the Trade in, and Private and State Manufacture of, Arms and Implements of War, Conference Documents, vol. iii, p. 891.