39
Press Releases, vol. XII, p. 3
Statement by the Secretary of State, December
29, 1934
The American Government has today received
the Japanese Government's notice of intention to terminate the Washington Naval
Treaty. We of course realize that any nation has the right not to renew a
treaty; also that any movement toward disarmament, to be successful, must rest
on agreements voluntarily entered into. This notification is none the less a
source of genuine regret to us, believing as we do that the existing treaties
have safeguarded the rights and promoted the collective interests of all of the
signatories.
The recent conversations at London, which
have been carried on in a spirit of friendship and good will, have revolved
around the question whether a movement of international cooperation and
disarmament can rest on the principle of equality of armament rather than on
the principle of equality of security. Each nation naturally desires—and we
stand unalterably for that view—to be on a basis of absolute equality with
other nations in the matter of national security.
244
DOCUMENTS
Experience teaches that conditions of peace or measures of disarmament
cannot be promoted by the doctrine that all nations, regardless of their
varying and different defensive needs, shall have equality of armaments. What
has been achieved up to the present time toward insuring conditions of peace
has been based on a community of objective, a community of conception of the
general interest, and a community of effort. The treaties thus far concluded
have involved no invasion of the sovereign rights of the participating
governments, and they have provided, with all proper respect for such sovereign
rights, that the armaments of the participating nations be established by voluntary
undertaking on a proportionate basis.
Notice of intention to terminate the
Washington Naval Treaty does not mean that that treaty ceases to be in effect
as of the date of notification: the provisions of that treaty remain in force
until the end of 1936. There consequently remains a period of 2 years within
which the interested nations may consider the situation that would be created
by the abandonment of the naval treaties; and the American Government is ready
to enter upon negotiations whenever it appears that there is prospect of
arrival at a mutually satisfactory conclusion which would give further effect
to the desire of the American Government and the American people—and, it is
believed, that of the other governments and peoples concerned—that the nations
of the world shall not be burdened by avoidable or extravagant expenditures on
armament.
The question presented when the Washington
treaties were negotiated, and which prompted each delegation to the signing and
each country to the ratifying of those treaties, was that of promoting peace
through disarmament and cooperative effort along certain defined lines. The
objectives then and there envisaged are still fundamental among the objectives
of the foreign policy of the United States. To this high purpose the people of
this country, in a spirit of sincere friendship toward all other peoples, will
continue unswervingly to devote their own efforts, and earnestly invoke like
efforts on the part of others.