Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1934, General, the British Commonwealth, Volume I

500.A15A4 Permanent Disarmament Commission/82

Memorandum by the Secretary of State

Washington, December 19, 1934.

The Chargé d’Affaires of the Soviet Union³⁴ called and, in a purely individual and unofficial way on his own account and on account of Mr. Litvinoff, handed me an instrument of writing in French, purporting to be a project for a permanent disarmament organization to sit at Geneva. The Chargé stated that Mr. Litvinoff desired the opinion of the President and myself before the meeting of the disarmament body on January 10th. He then undertook to repeat some of the reasons which Mr. Litvinoff advanced in support of his proposal for a permanent disarmament organization—which reasons were that when the Kellogg or Paris Pact was violated there was no machinery providing for a conference; that it was important at all times for an agency to be available to deal with disarmament problems; that the United States not being a member of the League had no place to offer its views touching disarmament problems when the present organization was not in session; that it was very important as a matter of general policy that there should be a continuing body of this kind, etc., etc.

I thanked the Chargé d’Affaires and expressed my interest in any proposal of this or like nature, and assured him that I would gladly make a study of it and communicate with him in the same informal and individual way prior to January 10th.

C[ordell] H[ull]

[Annex—Translation]

Draft Resolution

The Assembly: Inspired by the firm determination to assure the maintenance of the general peace and strengthen security among all nations,

Convinced, therefore, of the necessity of continuing the work of the Disarmament Conference tending to bring about the reduction and the limitation of armaments, and to assure security, and of effecting the conclusion of a general convention in this matter, which is one of the essential conditions on which peace depends,

Believing that it is likewise necessary to contribute by all means to full respect for the solemn undertaking to renounce war, assumed by virtue of the Pact of Paris of August 27, 1928, by facilitating, in particular, for all states sincerely desirous of averting and reducing the danger of war, the exchange of views intended to permit of coordinating their efforts in this sense,

Recognizing the utility of giving to the work tending to the accomplishment of these pacific tasks, a character of continuity within the framework of a permanent organization open to all nations that may desire to give it their effective cooperation,

Decides to establish, with the League of Nations, a Permanent Peace Conference,

Approves the statute of the Permanent Peace Conference, submitted to the Assembly for approval,

Requests the Secretary General to submit for the signature of the Members of the League of Nations this statute, which will go into effect as soon as the protocol of signature thereof shall have been ratified by the majority of the Members of the League.

Statute of the Permanent Peace Conference

chapter i. organization

Article 1. All the states represented at the Conference for the Reduction and Limitation of Armaments shall be considered as members of the Permanent Peace Conference, as well as any state which, while not being represented therein, shall have declared without reservations its desire to take part in the Permanent Peace Conference, such participation taking place from the time of the receipt by the Secretariat of its declaration to that effect.

Participation in the Permanent Peace Conference shall imply the recognition of the Pact of Paris for the renunciation of War.

Article 2. The work of the Permanent Peace Conference shall be carried on in accordance with the principles and the spirit of the covenant of the League of Nations by:

(1) The General Assembly.

(2) The Executive Committee.

The Secretariat of the Permanent Peace Conference shall be assured by the Secretariat of the League of Nations.

Article 3. The General Assembly shall be composed of representatives of the members of the Permanent Peace Conference. It shall meet in regular sessions during the periods of the regular sessions of the Assembly of the League of Nations, and in extraordinary sessions, in the cases contemplated by the present statute.

Article 4. The General Assembly shall take cognizance of all questions which come within the jurisdiction of the Permanent Peace Conference.

Article 5. The Executive Council shall be composed of representatives of the states represented at the same time on the Council of the League of Nations, and the representatives of the members of the Permanent Peace Conference, which do not belong to the League of Nations but to which the Executive Council shall have assigned a seat with the approval of the majority of the General Assembly.

The Executive Council shall meet whenever circumstances require and at least once a year.

It shall submit to the General Assembly annual reports on the work of the Permanent Peace Conference.

Article 6. In the intervals between the sessions of the General Assembly, the Executive Council shall take cognizance of any question coming within the jurisdiction thereof.

Article 7. Any member of the Permanent Peace Conference which is not represented on the Executive Council may send a representative to take part in its deliberations when a question which concerns it in particular is being studied by the Council.

Article 8. Every member of the Permanent Peace Conference represented in the General Assembly or in the Council shall have one vote therein.

Subject to contrary provisions of the present statute, the decisions of the General Assembly and of the Executive Council shall be taken on the basis of a majority of two-thirds of the members of the Permanent Peace Conference represented at the meeting. In taking votes relative to differences and disputes between members of the Permanent Peace Conference those of the parties to the dispute shall not be counted in the votes.

Article 9. The expenses of the Permanent Peace Conference shall be carried in the budget of the League of Nations. The amount of the contributions of the members of the Permanent Peace Conference which do not belong to the League of Nations shall be fixed by the Executive Council in agreement with the State concerned.

chapter ii. duties

Article 10. The Permanent Peace Conference shall be charged with the following duties:

(1) To carry on within the field of the reduction and limitation of armaments and the organization of security, the work undertaken pursuant to Article 8 of the Covenant of the League of Nations by the Disarmament Conference, to draw up, in particular, a general convention and to supervise the execution thereof, as well as that of other acts which may be drawn up in the course of such work.

(2) To study all questions relating to respect for the peace and the security of the members of the Permanent Peace Conference.

(3) To recommend the conclusion of general and regional agreements for non-aggression, mutual assistance, prevention of war, and peaceful settlement of international differences and to keep under observation the performance of international undertakings in these matters.

(4) To undertake consultation, in case of international conflicts constituting a danger or a threat of war or which have brought about hostilities, and to take the necessary measures for safeguarding or reestablishing peace.

(5) To adopt resolutions on the subject of acts endangering peace or infringing the Pact of Paris for renunciation of war, [on the subjects]³⁵ of offering its good offices for the reestablishment of peace as well as of determining which of the parties in the conflict should be considered as responsible and as having resorted to aggression.

The States signatories of agreements (accords) relative to the definition of the aggressor shall be guided, with respect to the parties to such agreements, by the definitions therein contained.

Article 11. Any member of the Permanent Peace Conference which should see its security threatened by an immediate danger or which should become the victim of an aggression, will have the right to request the convocation, within a period of ten days, of the Executive Committee which may decide to call together the General Assembly in order to examine the situation and take such measures as should be necessary to safeguard and reestablish peace.

Recourse to the Permanent Peace Conference shall not affect the right of the State concerned to appeal to the League of Nations according to the rules prescribed in the League Covenant.

Article 12. If a State in flagrant violation of the Pact of Paris resorts to hostilities against a member of the Permanent Peace Conference, the General Assembly may decide on the moral, economic or other measures which are to be applied to the said State in order to reestablish peace.

Such decision, made by a unanimous vote, shall obligate all the members of the Permanent Peace Conference to apply the measures which are provided for therein.

In case such decision, without being unanimous, should receive a majority vote in the General Assembly, a second vote shall be taken, the members of the Permanent Peace Conference who shall at this time have pronounced themselves in favor of the measures proposed thereby binding themselves to take part therein.

Article 13. In case measures should be taken in accordance with Article 12 of this Statute or by virtue of other agreements tending to safeguard peace against a State which has violated the engagement not to resort to war, any Members of the Permanent Peace Conference, who are not bound by an engagement to take part in such measures, will be bound not to undertake any action or give any protection to their nationals who are engaged in activities tending to counteract the measures taken by the other members of the Permanent Peace Conference in execution of the obligations existing between them.

Article 14. Any member of the Permanent Peace Conference who shall have broken the obligations assumed by it by virtue of the Pact of Paris or the present Statute, shall be deprived of the advantages of the latter and may be excluded from the Permanent Peace Conference by a unanimous vote of the General Assembly.

Article 15. Infractions of the obligations mentioned in paragraph 1 of Article 10 of the present Statute, the application of which may be placed under the supervision of the Permanent Peace Conference, will have the same consequences as the threat of violation of the Pact of Paris for the renunciation of war.

Article 16. The supervision and control of the execution of the agreements mentioned in paragraph 1 of Article 10 will be exercised in the form of centralization, collection, discussion, verification, appreciation and publication by the Permanent Peace Conference of the information relating to armaments, of the examination, investigation and appreciation of complaints concerning infractions of the said agreements and of the application of the measures intended to liquidate the consequences thereof.

The Permanent Peace Conference shall exercise these functions to the extent that the reduction, limitation and publicity of armaments and supervision (contrôle) of the latter shall be provided for by the agreements above mentioned.

In the discharge of these tasks the Permanent Peace Conference will be guided by the rules contemplated in the said agreements, in addition to the provisions of the present Statute.

Article 17. All decisions of the General Assembly of the Permanent Peace Conference that are not made unanimously must be submitted for approval to the Assembly of the League of Nations with the exception of the cases contemplated in Article 12, paragraph 3, of this Statute.

34. Alexei Fedorovich Neymann.
35. Brackets appear in file translation.