711.00 Statement July 16, 1937/37: Telegram (part air)

The Minister in Sweden ( Dearing ) to the Secretary of State

68. Referring to your circular July 17, 2 p.m. and to the Legation’s 64, July 20, 10 a.m.,35 Mr. Sandler has sent me a memorandum (in English) which reads as follows: [Page 716]

“Mr. Sandler has read with much interest Mr. Cordell Hull’s statement of July 16th, 1937. On receiving the text of the statement from the American Chargé d’Affaires at Stockholm, Mr. Sandler stressed its importance in view of both its contents and the time at which it was made. Reaffirming this statement Mr. Sandler desires to express his entire concurrence in the general principles set forth by Mr. Hull.

Referring to Mr. Hull’s concluding declaration concerning the avoidance of alliances or entangling commitments and belief in cooperative effort, Mr. Sandler wishes to make the following observations.

(1)
Mr. Sandler calls attention to the interest manifested by the Swedish Government in such a development of the practice of the League of Nations as to facilitate cooperation with non-member states. Mr. Sandler points to the fact that with this in view special interest is shown here in Article 1036 of the Covenant of the League.
(2)
Mr. Sandler wishes to state with reference to the problem of the reduction of armaments that although at the present moment circumstances do not offer much possibility of reduction or a limitation of armaments, it is urgent to continue the work in this field, devoting it first of all to the question of the supervision of the manufacture of and trade in arms. In this connection Mr. Sandler would recall the suggestions concerning national supervision of the manufacture of and trade in arms made by the Swedish representative at the meeting of the Bureau of the Conference for the reduction and limitation of armaments at Geneva on May 31, 193737 as well as the idea of concluding a convention on the control of armaments limited to certain countries, referred to by the Swedish representative on the same occasion.
(3)
With reference to the problem of economic security Mr. Sandler wishes to recall the recent agreement reached between the Oslo powers38 and the interest manifested by them in other states making efforts along the same lines. Mr. Sandler feels that any progress, however limited its immediate scope may be, attained by means of agreements between states likely to join in these efforts is of greater value than the convening of international conferences. Mr. Sandler would stress that decisive importance is attached here to the outcome of the Anglo-American negotiations concerning an agreement conceived in the spirit of the commercial treaties concluded by the United States in recent years. Stockholm July 24th, 1937.”

Dearing
  1. Latter not printed.
  2. Foreign Relations, The Paris Peace Conference, Vol. xiii, p. 83.
  3. See pp. 1 ff.
  4. Signed May 28, 1937, by Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, Norway, Netherlands, and Sweden; League of Nations Treaty Series, Vol. clxxx, p. 5.