The United States and Disarmament

Report Outline
Preparatory Commission for Disarmament Conference
Opposing Disarmament Principles at Geneva
Naval Strength of Great Powers
Control of Arms Traffic and Poison Gas
Special Focus

In a special message to Congress, February 10, President Coolidge announced that he had invited France, Great Britain, Italy and Japan to empower their delegates to the forthcoming meeting of the Preparatory Commission for Disarmament at Geneva to negotiate and conclude agreements for the further limitation of naval armaments, supplementing the Washington Naval Treaty and including the classes of vessels not covered by that treaty. The President stated that this would not mean a separate conference, but that the suggested negotiations should be carried on in conjunction with the sittings of the Preparatory Commission and should prove of practical assistance in the accomplishment of the Commission's general aims.

“Pending the formulation of a plan for a general disarmament conference,” the President said, “I believe that we should make an immediate and sincere effort to solve the problem of naval limitation, the solution of which should do much to make the efforts toward more general limitation effective.”

President Coolidge stated that while naval competition had not really begun, “certain powers” had laid down far reaching naval building programs. The British, Japanese and French Governments are all known to be greatly increasing their naval strength, each along separate lines, the British concentrating on light cruisers, the Japanese on fleet submarines and the French on smaller submarines,