500.A15a4/211: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Great Britain ( Dawes )
158. Letter of June 3 from Boal to Marriner15 should reach Paris by Friday.
Figures have been submitted to the League Secretariat showing the position of our armaments, including budgetary figures.16 These are to be released in Washington and Geneva on June 15. On the 12th advance copies of the release, not to be used until the 15th, will be given to correspondents here.
The only other country that has submitted figures, so far as we know, is Russia. However, we have been informed from Berne that the Russian figures were forwarded in a sealed envelope addressed to the Disarmament Conference. The envelope is not to be opened by the Secretariat. This Russian action has not received any publicity here. Litvinoff’s17 letter of transmittal published by the League states merely that Russia is supplying the necessary information in accordance with the Council’s resolution. The rapporteur announced, according to the League Information Section’s release of May 23, that Russia has requested that the information not be submitted before the Conference assembles. The press does not appear to have taken notice of this.
If any mention is publicly made in Paris of these precautions for secrecy which have been taken by the Russians, please telegraph us immediately, since their action seems to be directly contrasted to ours and might serve to bring into higher relief our desire not to keep from the public any information on armaments.