15
Press Releases, vol. VIII, p. 348
Message of
President Roosevelt to the Congress, May 16, 1933
To the Congress:
For the information of the Congress I am sending herewith a message that I have addressed this morning to the sovereigns and presidents of those nations participating in the Disarmament Conference and the World Monetary and Economic Conference. [l3]
I was impelled to this action because it has become increasingly evident that the assurance. of world political and economic peace and
[12a] Hjalmar Schacht, President of the Reichsbank.
[12b] Norman H. Davis, Chairman of the United States
Delegation, General Disarmament Conference, Geneva, Switzerland.
[13] The message of the President to the heads of
the nations participating in the World Economic Conference and the Disarmament
Conference was cabled direct to the sovereigns and presidents of the following
nations: Albania, Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, Bolivia,
Bulgaria, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Dominican
Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Germany, Great
Britain, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iraq, Italy, Japan,
Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama,
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DOCUMENTS
stability is threatened by selfish and short-sighted policies, actions and threats of actions.
The sincere wish for this assurance by an overwhelming majority of the nations faces the danger of recalcitrant obstruction by a very
Footnote 13—Continued.
Paraguay, Persia, Peru,
Poland, Portugal, Rumania, Russia, Siam, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey,
Uruguay, Venezuela, Yugoslavia.
The
message follows:
“A profound
hope of the people of my country impels me, as the head of their government, to
address you and, through you, the people of your nation. This hope is that
peace may be assured through practical measures of disarmament and that all of
us may carry to victory our common struggle against economic chaos.
"To these
ends the nations have called two great world conferences. The happiness, the
prosperity, and the very lives of the men, women and children who inhabit the
whole world are bound up in the decisions which their governments will make in
the near future. The improvement of social conditions, the preservation of
individual human rights, and the furtherance of social justice are dependent
upon these decisions.
"The
World Economic Conference will meet soon and must come to its conclusions
quickly. The world can not await deliberations long drawn out. The Conference
must establish order in place of the present chaos by a stabilization of
currencies, by freeing the flow of world trade, and by international action to
raise price levels. It must, in short, supplement individual domestic programs
for economic recovery, by wise and considered international action.
"The
Disarmament Conference has labored for more than a year and, as yet, has been
unable to reach satisfactory conclusions. Confused purposes still clash
dangerously. Our duty lies in the direction of bringing practical results
through concerted action based upon the greatest good to the greatest number.
Before the imperative call of this great duty, petty obstacles must be swept
away and petty aims forgotten. A selfish victory is always destined to be an
ultimate defeat. The furtherance of durable peace for our generation in every
part of the world is the only goal worthy of our best efforts.
"If we
ask what are the reasons for armaments, which, in spite of the lessons and
tragedies of the World War, are today a greater burden on the peoples of the
earth than ever before, it becomes clear that they are two-fold: First, the
desire, disclosed or hidden, on the part of Governments to enlarge their
territories at the expense of a sister nation. I believe that only a small
minority of Governments or of peoples harbor such a purpose. Second, the fear
of nations that they will be invaded. I believe that the overwhelming majority
of peoples feel obliged to retain excessive armaments because they fear some
act of aggression against them and not because they themselves seek to be
aggressors.
"There is justification for this fear. Modern weapons of offense
are vastly stronger than modern weapons of defense. Frontier forts, trenches,
wire entanglements, coast defenses—in a word, fixed fortifications—are no
longer impregnable to the attack or war planes, heavy mobile artillery, land
battleships called tanks, and poison gas.
"If all nations will agree wholly to eliminate from possession and use the
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small minority, just as in the domestic field the good purposes of a majority in business, labor or in other cooperative efforts are often frustrated by a selfish few.
The deep-rooted desire of Americans for better living conditions and for the avoidance of war is shared by mass humanity in every country. As a means to this end, I have in the message to the various nations, stressed the practical necessity of reducing armaments. It is high time for us and for every other nation to understand the sim
Footnote
13—Continued. weapons which make possible a successful attack, defenses
automatically will become impregnable, and the frontiers and independence of
every nation will become secure.
"The ultimate objective
of the Disarmament Conference must be the complete elimination of all offensive
weapons. The immediate objective is a substantial reduction of some of these
weapons and the elimination of many others.
"This Government
believes that the program for immediate reduction of aggressive weapons, now under discussion at Geneva, is
but a first step toward our ultimate goal. We do not believe that the proposed
immediate steps go far enough. Nevertheless, this Government welcomes the
measures now proposed and will exert its influence toward the attainment of
further successive steps of disarmament.
"Stated in the clearest way, there are
three steps to be agreed upon in the present discussion:
“First,
to take, at once, the first definite step toward this objective, as broadly
outlined in the MacDonald Plan.
"Second,
to agree upon time and procedure for taking the following steps.
“Third,
to agree that while the first and the following steps are being taken, no
nation shall increase its existing armaments over and above the limitations of
treaty obligations.
"But
the peace of the world must be assured during the whole period of disarmament
and I, therefore, propose a fourth step concurrent with and wholly dependent on
the faithful fulfillment of these three proposal,. and subject to existing
treaty rights:
"That
all the nations of the world should enter into a solemn and definite pact of
non-aggression: That they should solemnly reaffirm the obligations they have
assumed to limit and reduce their armaments and, provided these obligations are
faithfully executed by all signatory powers, individually agree that they will
send no armed force of whatsoever nature across their frontiers.
"Common
sense points out that if any strong nation refuses to join with genuine
sincerity in these concerted efforts for political and economic peace, the one
at Geneva and the other at London, progress can be obstructed and ultimately
blocked. In such event the civilized world, seeking both forms of peace, will
know where the responsibility for failure lies. I urge that no nation assume
such a responsibility, and that all the nations joined in these great
conferences translate their professed policies into action. This is the way to
political and economic peace.
"I
trust that your government will join in the fulfillment of these hopes.
“Franklin
D. Roosevelt"
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ple fact that the invasion of any nation, or the destruction of a
national sovereignty, can be prevented only by the complete elimination of the
weapons that make such a course possible today.
Such an elimination will make the little
nation relatively more secure against the great nation.
Furthermore, permanent defenses are a
nonrecurring charge against governmental budgets while large armies,
continually rearmed with improved offensive weapons, constitute a recurring
charge. This, more than any other factor today is responsible for governmental
deficits and threatened bankruptcy.
The way to disarm is to disarm. The way to
prevent invasion is to make it impossible.
I have asked for an agreement among nations
on four practical and simultaneous steps:
First, that through a series of steps the
weapons of offensive warfare be eliminated;
Second, that the first definite step be taken
now;
Third, that while these steps are being taken
no nation shall increase existing armaments over and above the limitations of
treaty obligations;
Fourth, that subject to existing treaty
rights no nation during the disarmament period shall send any armed force of
whatsoever nature across its own borders.
Our people realize that weapons of offense
are needed only if other nations have them and they will freely give them up if
all the nations of the world will do likewise.
In the domestic field the Congress has
labored in sympathetic understanding with me for the improvement of social
conditions, for the preservation of individual human rights, and for the
furtherance of social justice.
In the message to the nations which I
herewith transmit I have named the same objectives. It is in order to assure
these great human values that we seek peace by ridding the world of the weapons
of aggression and attack..
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
THE WHITE HOUSE,
May 16, 1933.
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