I hope that Your Excellency will do justice in the matter as you always
have done in dealing with all small nations, of which your work at the
Pan-American Conference at Montevideo11 was a
shining example.
[Enclosure]
Memorandum
Article 3 of the 1923 [1925] Convention for
the Suppression of International Trade in Arms and Ammunitions,
which includes the Persian Gulf in the special zones and gives the
right to other powers of control and search of boats in the Persian
Gulf is designated to bring a taint to Persian integrity and to
violate Persian national rights; with the consequent result of the
violation of the principles on which the League of Nations is based,
that is, equality of all members in all international laws. The very
fact that wholly and partially the African States such as Egypt,
Libya, Tunis, Algeria, Ethiopia,
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etc., which have neither army nor navy, are
exempted from the special zones and the Persian Gulf included brings
to glaring light the motive as above-mentioned with which the
interested parties have framed Article 3, to curb Persia in her
direct commercial communication with the continent.
The Persian Government which has disarmed all the tribes in Persia
for the maintaining of internal peace and order and would not allow
a single shotgun to enter Persia is not likely to slacken its
vigilance in the preventing of the smuggling of arms and ammunition
through its sea and territory into Persia or to the Arab tribes
along the southern coast of the Persian Gulf. Such being the case,
Persia is more interested in the suppression of trade in arms and
ammunition in the Persian Gulf than any other nation. As an instance
I may mention one or two cases of the arrest two years ago by
Persian Custom Houses at ports on the Persian Gulf of foreign boats
carrying arms and ammunition to certain tribes on the southern coast
of the Persian Gulf. Nobody can dispute the Persian Government’s
power of control when nine armed ships of the most modern type with
trained officers and sailors are maintaining perfect and strict
order all over the Persian Gulf.
The very fact that the League of Nations has recognised the justice
of the claims of the Persian Government and its objection to Article
3 of the Convention and referred the Persian claims to the
Disarmament Committee, which in turn has admitted their justice and
voted for the revision of Article 3 of the Convention (as recorded
on page 5 of the Committee’s report of 1933) leaves no doubt as to
the gross injustice in including the Persian Gulf in the special
zones. Such being the case, ratification of such a treaty by the
United States Senate and Government, which have won the confidence
and admiration of the world by their strict justice and
disinterestedness, which characterizes their dealings in all
international affairs, as well as their support of small nations,
will shock the confidence not only of Persia but of all the nations
which have voted against Article 3 of the Convention.
Persia asks for nothing but justice and the freedom of the only sea
by which she has access to other continents to continue her peaceful
commercial relations. The Government of the United States can justly
postpone a little longer, pending the revision of Article 3, without
incurring injustice by ratifying a treaty, the gross injustice of
which is already admitted by the League and the Committee on
Disarmament.
At the seventh meeting of the League of Nations, held October 18,
1932, Chairman M. de Scavemius stated as follows: In regard to the
Persian request that the Committee should pronounce on the
desirability of modifying the 1925 Convention, it should be noted
that the
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Convention [Committee?] had already received several
requests for the amendment of the Convention and that consequently
the Persian delegates’ request had been met; and after a long
discussion the Chairman said that, after consulting the meeting on
this point, he noted that the Committee accepted the principle of
recommending the revision of the 1925 Convention.
