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Speech Delivered by the Chairman of the American Delegation, Henry L. Stimson, at the Opening Session of the Conference, London, January 21, 1930

MR. CHAIRMAN: We are profoundly impressed and moved by the significance of the speeches we have just heard, the cordial and hospitable welcome extended to us by His Majesty the King and the wise analysis of our problems which has been so movingly presented by the Prime Minister. I am so convinced that all members of this conference share the lofty idealism that has been expressed in the two preceding speeches, that I look forward with confident hope to the success of our labors. I deem it an auspicious event that our first meeting at this conference, in which there must be a spirit of understanding and cooperation, should take place in the Houses of Parliament which have for Americans a deep significance as the cradle of our jurisprudence and of our fundamental ideas of human liberty.

The use of international conferences of this sort for the purpose of limiting and reducing armaments is a recent development in world affairs, so recent that a number of our colleagues at this table participated in the labors of the Washington Conference, the first of the series of efforts devoted to this great end. That conference was a first step on the long road of international endeavor in limitation and reduction upon which the world has started. We may well feel that this beginning was a momentous event in the history of the human race; we may derive a legitimate gratification from the knowledge that we have lived in days when for the first time human thoughts and desires for disarmament reached practical and tangible expression.

I feel it is important to emphasize the fact that we do not look upon this effort toward disarmament as final. Naval limitation is a continuous process. We regard disarmament as a goal to be reached by successive steps, by frequent revision and improvement. Human affairs are not static, but are moving and, we believe, improving. A solution reached to-day, however perfect, may not respond to conditions at a later date. We sincerely hope that increased feeling of security may enable still more drastic reduction in the future. For that reason we feel that the sound and obvious course is to reach such agreements as may be possible now, with the knowledge that they are open to revision at appropriate periods.

We are convinced that in attacking now the naval problem, we are following the practical and common-sense path. We believe that any solution which we can make of this problem will be a tangible contribution to the success of the wider problem of general disarmament. There is a relationship between the land, sea, and air forces which constitute national defense. We believe that a limitation of any one of these will contribute to an enlightened limitation of the others.

While the greatest contribution my country can make to the general cause of disarmament is in naval matters, still it must not be forgotten that our ultimate aim is a general solution of the disarmament problem and a consequent lessening of the risks of war. For that reason, however great the achievements of this conference in regard to the naval problem, our zeal in the general cause of disarmament and our efforts to contribute to the success of future endeavors in other fields will continue unabated.

We have endeavored to study the particular problems and difficulties of the other nations, as well as our own. We have come here to try to find a solution acceptable to all, of benefit to all, and of benefit to the peace and stability of the world. There are many problems, we know, but each problem before us seems to us far outweighed by the opportunity to serve civilization. We are ready to stay here until the problems are solved, until the opportunities are grasped, and until we can give to the world an agreement that will carry us happily on to the time when we meet again in the same spirit to look over the situation anew.

Mr. Chairman, we have had relations with members of each delegation here which have given us the assurance of the good will, patience, and wisdom which they will contribute to the success of our endeavors. We assure you on our part that we are prepared to cooperate in the fullest measure, to do our utmost to appreciate the difficulties of others, and to continue such work as long as may be necessary to achieve our purpose. Our peoples demand of us a success; they recognize the disaster that a failure of this conference would bring to their dearest hopes, and they are determined that we shall succeed.

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Statement by the Chairman of the American Delegation, Henry L. Stimson, at the Plenary Session of the Conference, London, January 23, 1930

After careful consideration and consultation with my colleagues I have decided not to make any statement to-day as to the naval requirements of America. I do not think that to do so would particularly assist our deliberations. These requirements are well understood. They have been cheerfully recognized by the nation which is our host and which has, through its Prime Minister, agreed with us that equality in naval power between us is the basis upon which we can best promote the beneficent purposes of this conference. We also believe that the requirements of national defense on the part of the various nations of the world are necessarily largely relative to the general conditions of the world and, therefore, if this conference can find a way by which a general reduction can be secured, our own Navy can be likewise reduced. While this is our attitude we shall gladly listen to any statements which may be made by others as we are anxious fully and cordially to understand the difficulties and problems which may confront our sister nations. For ourselves I shall not make any statement.

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Address Delivered by the Chairman of the American Delegation, Henry L. Stimson, to the Radio Audiences of Great Britain and the United States, London, January 28, 1930

Under these peculiar circumstances which find me abroad in London, and you, my unseen audience, at home in the United States, it would be of far greater pleasure to me if modern science could collect the voice of the American people and bring it over here to me for my inspiration and guidance rather than take my own voice and distribute it among you. Nevertheless, while I can neither see you nor hear you, I can get confidence from talking to you.

The American Delegation at the naval arms conference here in London, as you know, consists of Mr. Charles Francis Adams, the Secretary of the Navy; Senator Joseph T. Robinson of Arkansas, the leader of the Democratic Party in the Senate; Senator David Reed of Pennsylvania, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Military Affairs; General Dawes, the American Ambassador here in London; Mr. Hugh Gibson, the American Ambassador in Brussels; Mr. Dwight Morrow, the American Ambassador to Mexico; and myself.

We have come over here to try to negotiate a treaty between the United States, Great Britain, France, Italy, and Japan, by which each of these nations will limit and reduce its Navy. We believe that this will accomplish two great purposes: first, that it will put an end to the ill will, suspicion, and fear that inevitably are aroused by competition in naval building; and secondly, that it will reduce the cost of our navies and thus relieve the taxpayers of each country from some of the burdens that rest upon them.

We believe that we can do both of these things, and yet at the same time add to the security of our country, for there are times when less navy and more good will in the world will give greater security than more navy and less good will, and we think that this is one of those times.

The reaction from the Great War is still with us. As with individuals, so with nations, the periods of wisdom follow the periods of trial. The pressure of public opinion arising out of the sorrows of the Great War has made possible several great constructive international agreements in the last six years. Perhaps the greatest of these was the one which was promulgated in Washington last July—the

Pact of Paris, sometimes called the Briand-Kellogg Pact-by which virtually all the nations of the world renounced war as an instrument of national policy, and agreed in the future to settle their differences only by pacific means. In America, we believed when we signed that pact we meant what we said. We should give the credit of equal sincerity to the other nations who signed with us.

In the light of all these circumstances, we here of the American Delegation believe that this is the time when limitation and reduction of navies should be possible.

A few days ago Mr. MacDonald, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, told you over the radio of the sacrifices which Great Britain has already made and the steps which she has already taken to accomplish the reduction of her naval armament. America also has already shown her attitude in this cause by similar sacrifices and similar steps. Eight years ago, when she called the first disarmament conference in Washington she was engaged in building a fleet of battleships larger and more powerful than those of any other nation in the world. Fifteen of such capital ships were already in the course of construction and over $330,000,000 had been spent on their construction. In order to stop naval competition and to put an end to the consequent rivalry, suspicion, and fear between the nations which would grow out of such competition, America destroyed all of these new ships, together with thirteen older battleships in her possession, and signed the Washington treaty with Great Britain, France, Italy, and Japan. This treaty has put an end to all competition in battleships from that day to this between those nations.

More than this, and with the special purpose of reassuring Japan, America at the same time agreed to stop all work on her naval bases in the Orient and to leave them unfinished and unprotected. Nothing could have shown better her confidence in Japan. Nothing could have shown more clearly that instead of regarding that great country as a menace to herself, she regarded her as a friend and a stabilizing influence in the Far East that would make for peace in that troubled portion of the world. The subsequent events have shown that America was right. Japan has responded most cordially to this action, and the relations between Japan and America have become more friendly and mutually confident than ever before.

Coupled with the four-power Pacific treaty by which America, Great Britain, France, and Japan agreed to respect each other's possessions in the western Pacific and to consult together if ever any controversies arise between them as to these possessions, this action of America and of all these other countries of the Pacific has produced a feeling of security in that neighborhood which even the great civil wars on the mainland of China have been unable to disturb.