bound to ask for a slight increase in staff in order to cope with the increase of work. While in 1926 the number of meetings had been far greater than for any other year, in 1927 that number would be far surpassed.

102. On the proposal of the British delegate, the Council decided that the Secretary-General's report, together with the observations which he had just made, should be communicated to the members of the Assembly.

London, July 25, 1927.

AUSTEN CHAMBERLAIN.

Miscellaneous No. 4 (1927)

League of Nations

Preparatory Committee for the Disarmament Conference

THIRD SESSION

Geneva, March 21 to April 26, 1927

REPORT OF THE BRITISH REPRESENTATIVE TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Presented by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
to Parliament by Command of His Majesty

LONDON:

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY HIS MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE To be purchased directly from H.M. STATIONERY OFFICE at the following addresses: Adastral House, Kingsway, London, W.C.2; 120, George Street, Edinburgh; York Street, Manchester; 1, St. Andrew's Crescent, Cardiff;

Cmd. 2888

15, Donegall Square West, Belfast;

or through any Bookseller.

1927

Price Is. Net

Preparatory Committee for the Disarmament Con

ference, Third Session.
April 26, 1927.

Geneva, March 21 to

Sir,

Viscount Cecil to Sir Austen Chamberlain.

London, May 17, 1927.

I HAVE the honour to submit the following report on the recent (Third) Session of the Preparatory Committee for the Disarmament Conference.

It will be remembered that the Preparatory Committee, which was constituted by the Council of the League of Nations in December 1925, in accordance with a resolution of the Assembly of the previous September, met for the first time on the 18th May last year. At that first session it formulated a number of questions, designed to elicit definitions that might assist in determining the principles and method of reduction or limitation of armaments. These questions were referred to its technical sub-committees, some of which were in almost continual session during the remainder of last year. The results of the sub-committee's labour, which have been published, afforded the Preparatory Committee a vast amount of information, some of which was of great value.

The Preparatory Committee held a second session in September 1926, but it confined itself on that occasion to taking note of the progress of the work of its sub-committees.

The Council, in December last, apprised of the stage reached in the deliberations, directed the committee to meet again on the 21st March, to draw up an agenda for the Disarmament Conference, and make suggestions in regard to the date on which that conference might meet.

His Majesty's Government considered that there could be no better or more practical means of preparing an agenda for the conference than to endeavour to submit a draft convention for the reduction and limitation of armaments. The moment had not indeed arrived when actual figures for the armaments of the countries concerned could be suggested. But before that final point could be approached it was necessary to settle what the figures should refer to. In other words, the first step was to draw up a convention defining the principal methods by which limitation of land, sea and air armaments could best be carried out. Majesty's Government accordingly preceeded to draw up a tentative draft convention with this object which I was authorised to submit to the committee. On many of the principal questions the subcommittees had been unable to achieve unanimity, and in regard to these His Majesty's Government did not expect that their draft would meet with immediate approval. Where cpinions were more or 3993 Wt. 2250 6/27 F.O.P. 16208

B 2

His

less equally divided, it was only to be expected that His Majesty's Government would embody theirs in the preliminary draft, which was intended to serve as a basis of discussion. Out of a frank and free exchange of views it was to be hoped that agreement might emerge. I regret that in regard to some points this hope has not yet been realised, though considerable progress has been made, and I am convinced that the discussions of the committee were facilitated and rendered more effective by the fact that they were based on definite proposals. The submission of an actual draft gave a sense of greater reality, and the examination of definite texts kept the discussion on practical lines when it might have strayed into vague generalities.

I enclose, for purposes of reference, a copy of the British draft convention (Annex I). I submitted this draft to the committee at its opening meeting on the 21st March, with an explanatory statement. The French representative thereupon intimated that he would submit a draft prepared by his Government, and this draft was circulated on the following day (copy is also enclosed hereinAnnex II). Other delegations declined to avail themselves of the opportunity to submit alternative drafts of their own, and discussion from this point centred on the British and French texts. In order to facilitate the task of the committee it was agreed that the Bureau should draw up a "synoptic analysis" taking the main headings of the two drafts and bringing under each, in parallel columns, the provisions in each draft relating thereto.

The committee went through this analysis point by point, and the results of their deliberations are given in the final "Texts adopted at First Reading" (Annex III). The introduction to this final text explains clearly enough the scope of the recent discussions and the form of the agreements reached. It was generally recognised that the recent discussion constituted only, as it were, a first reading, and that acceptance of any point at the first reading by any delegation did not prejudice the attitude it might adopt at the second reading. The second reading was provisionally fixed to be taken on the 1st November, since it did not seem possible to have it before the meeting of the Assembly in September next without a possibility of interference with the Three-Power Conference summoned by President Coolidge in June.

It will be noticed that the first subject dealt with in the first reading text is the limitation of effectives. In point of fact, this subject was treated in the discussion in three divisions, as affecting land, sea, and air armaments and I propose so dealing with it in this despatch. In reality we discussed five main topics at Geneva. That is to say, methods and principles for the limitation of Land Armaments, Sea Armaments and Air Armaments, Budgetary Expenditure and International Supervision.

LAND ARMAMENTS.

With regard to land armaments, the committee were agreed that the main method of limiting land armaments must be by limiting