Denunciation by Japan of the Washington naval treaty of 1922 ¹

^1. For text of the treaty signed at Washington, February 6, 1922, see Foreign Relations, 1922, vol. i, p. 247.

[Article 23 of the London Naval Treaty of 1930 (Department of State Treaty Series No. 830) provided that the signatory powers should meet in conference in 1935 “to frame a new treaty to replace and carry out the purposes of the existing treaty.”

In May 1934, the British Cabinet Council considered the question of preparing for the 1935 Conference and at the conclusion of its deliberations asked the American and the Japanese Governments to send representatives to London to carry on preliminary and exploratory conversations which should be bilateral rather than trilateral. The invited Governments accepted, the United States indicating that it would be glad to discuss both procedural and technical naval questions, and Japan declaring the readiness of that Government to deal only with questions of procedure as its preparations on the substance of the naval problem were not yet completed. The Japanese Government sent no delegation to London during the summer. The Anglo-American conversations lasted from June 18 to July 19, 1934.

The second stage of the conversations began shortly after the longdelayed arrival of the Japanese delegation on October 16 and continued until December 19, 1934. In accordance with the original British invitation in June, the procedure followed was that of separate Anglo-American, Anglo-Japanese, and American-Japanese discussions; except on the last day (December 19) no trilateral meetings took place. For text of letter of guidance which President Roosevelt addressed to Mr. Norman H. Davis, October 5, 1934, upon his departure for London to continue the conversations, see telegram No. 373, November 30, 1935, to the Ambassador in Great Brtain, page 281.]