511.52D1/278
The Acting Secretary of State to the Secretary-General of the League of Nations (Drummond)43
The Acting Secretary of State of the United States of America has received, with appreciation, the note of the Secretary General of the League of Nations, dated June 29, 1931, in which he inquires pursuant to a resolution of the Council if the Government of the United States, as a non-member of the League, is prepared to accede to the 1921 Convention relative to the suppression of the Traffic in Women and Children.
The Secretary General was informed in a note dated March 8, 1922, the reasons why the Government of the United States of America was unable at that time to adhere to the Convention of 1910 and to sign the confirmatory Convention of Sepember 30, 1921.
Inasmuch as the situation described in the note of March 8, 1922, has not changed, the Government of the United States feels compelled to withhold its adherence to the Convention of September 30, 1921, as well as to the Convention of 1910.
The Acting Secretary of State does not wish it to be understood, however, that the Government of the United States is not in full sympathy with the laudable purposes of the Conventions or that the United States would be unable in the future to cooperate in the formulation of an international convention which might be so prepared as to make it possible for the Government of the United States to become a party.
- Transmitted in covering despatch No. 1532, August 18, 1931, to the Minister in Switzerland.↩