711.4112 A/2
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in Great Britain ( Atherton )20
Sir: I desire to inform you that the British Ambassador in Washington called on me on December 15, 1927, and that the following conversation ensued on the subject of the Briand proposal and its general relationship to the Boot arbitration treaties:
The British Ambassador asked me if I could give him any information about the negotiations with France over Briand’s proposal. I told him there was nothing definite yet; that, as he remembered, the Boot treaties ran out in 1928 and I thought they ought to be renewed. I explained to him that I had hoped to be able to get a form of treaty which I could present to Great Britain, France and Japan at least, and perhaps to other countries, for the renewal of the Root arbitration treaties; that it seemed to me we could afford to arbitrate purely legal questions, that is, questions subject to judicial determination under international law or the construction of treaties but that no country would arbitrate a political question or a question pertaining to its sovereign domestic jurisdiction, like tariff, taxation, immigration and many other things. He said certainly not. I told him there was only one clause in the Boot treaties which seemed to be very indefinite and that was a proviso as follows: “Provided, nevertheless, that they do not affect the vital interests, the independence or the honor of the two Contracting States”; that nobody knew what that meant and it seemed to me that a reservation in the treaty that there should be no arbitration of a political or domestic matter made in the broadest terms would cover that matter; that the arbitration of rights under a treaty might be of vital interest; that I did not see how it could affect the independence; a country might think it affected its honor. I told him I also thought there should be a preamble in such a treaty stating that it was the desire of nations to employ arbitration to such international disputes (legal disputes I meant) and thereby lessen the dangers of war or something to that effect, but, of course, I could not tell exactly what kind of a treaty the Senate would approve. He said he thought his Government would approve such a treaty as I had mentioned.
His conversation was entirely informal as I had nothing to present to him.
I am [etc.]
- The same on Jan. 6, 1928, to the Chargé in France (No. 2577).↩