500.A15a4/27: Telegram

The Minister in Switzerland ( Wilson ) to the Secretary of State

[Paraphrase]

11. Your No. 8, January 19, 5 p.m. Disarmament questions had been set for discussion by the Council at its meeting yesterday morning. [Page 486] Your telegram arrived in time for me to correct the false and conflicting impressions heretofore prevalent as to your attitude. It was decided to confine yesterday’s Council session to general speeches accepting the report of the work of the Preparatory Commission. Any decision on the organization of the Disarmament Conference was postponed for a few days in order to permit more mature consideration of future plans.

Everybody to whom I talked recognized that the only way to solve large questions of principle was through the use of direct conversations. Thus I found no opposition to the thought which you so forcibly expressed. The points under discussion were how to instigate these conversations and what means to use to maintain pressure on the parties carrying on negotiations.

The situation seems to be developing in this way: The rapporteur, Quiñones de León, plans to urge the selection of officials who will be instructed by the Council to undertake the preparatory work for the Conference, to ascertain possible difficulties, and to recommend direct conversations between Governments when this is advisable for the purpose of overcoming such difficulties. The rapporteur also plans to recommend that the Council adopt a resolution urging the immediate acceptance by all Governments of the recommendations relative to direct conversations submitted by these officers.

Owing to the situation outlined above, a longer stay in Geneva on my part would have increased the probability of my becoming too publicly or deeply involved in the negotiations. I have therefore returned to Berne. It is not now known when the Council will take up this matter. I shall be kept closely informed by the Secretariat.

With regard to the persons to be selected as officials of the Conference, the German opposition to the designation at this time of any officers coupled with the Italian opposition to Beneš may lead to the constitution of a “standing committee” with instructions as indicated in paragraph 3 above. This would leave the choosing of officers to a later time, possibly to the Disarmament Conference itself. The British have in mind a compromise plan: The Germans to drop their opposition and be compensated by the naming of Schober of Austria97 as a vice-president and by the calling of the Conference for November of 1931.

There is as yet no sign of serious opposition to Geneva as the meeting place for the Conference.

Wilson
  1. Dr. Johann Schober, Vice Chancellor and Minister for Foreign Affairs.