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The Secretary of State to President Coolidge50
My Dear Mr. President: I enclose you a copy of a letter I have received from Sir Esme Howard.51 There is I believe a complete answer to the British claim for the revision of the Washington Treaty at this Conference. None of the Powers can lay down any new ships until 1931 so that there is no object at this time in entering into an agreement for the reduction of the size or the extension of the life of battleships. No ships can be built except for renewals and the first ones to be built can be laid down in 1931, completed in 1934. The Washington Treaty provides for a revision in 1931 at which Conference all the five Powers would be represented. So it seems inadvisable to revise the Treaty four years before any ships can even be laid down, especially as two of the Signatories are not present at Geneva. The plea, therefore, which the British Government is making to the public that this is a matter of economy is without any merit at this time. Parenthetically, I should say that the substance of Sir Esme Howard’s letter was given to the press yesterday but I am bringing it to your attention in accordance with his request.
Quite likely there is another reason why the British are very anxious to have an agreement at this time for the prolongation of the life and a reduction in the size of battleships upon renewals. The United States has no capital ships exceeding in size 32,600 tons. The British have two new ships—the Rodney and the Nelson—about completed which are about 35,000 tons, the most powerful battleships ever built. It would be to Great Britain’s advantage, of course, that all renewals should not exceed 30,000 tons or 25,000 tons, whichever is agreed upon, because she already has these two new ships and the United States would be prohibited from building to match them. Personally I think we could afford to cut the size of battleships to 30,000 tons, perhaps less provided in building additional ships Great Britain would agree that we could be compensated by reductions on her part but at present this could not well be done without the consent of France and Italy. In any event, it seemed to the Navy that it would be best not to open up a revision of the Washington Treaty at this time as no one would know to where it would lead. Of course, the Navy claims that we need larger battleships because of their wider range for cruising, we having but few naval bases throughout the world. I do not know how much there is to this but I cannot see that [Page 64] we would need battleships except for defense and in our Philippine possessions.
We are sending you the important telegrams so that you may keep posted.
Faithfully yours,