Armament > Memorandum by the French delegation

LN. IX.
Official No.: Gonf. D. 14©.
Geneva, November 14th, 1932.
LEAGUE OF NATIONS
CONFERENCE FOR THE REDUCTION AND
LIMITATION OF ARMAMENTS
MEMORANDUM BY THE FRENCH DELEGATION
In putting forward the proposals contained in the present memorandum, the French delegation
lays no claim to direct the work of the Conference into entirely new channels. Having endeavoured
to interpret the lesson to be drawn from the discussions which have been pursued at Geneva for
the last eight months and adhering to the resolutions already adopted, it hopes that a large number
of delegations will recognise the expression of their own views in the proposals which it is putting
forward, and that the Conference, after studying this text, will find therein a system which,
combined with previous proposals and particularly with those of President Hoover, will enable
it to bring its task rapidly to a successful conclusion.
From the de bates which have been going on since February 2nd, 1932, certain lessons may
be drawn.
It is now realised that " the reduction of national armaments to the lowest point consistent
with national safety and the enforcement by common action of international obligations ” cannot
be hoped for unless account is taken, as provided in Article 8 of the Covenant, of the geographical
situation and special conditions of each State and even of each continent.
It is also realised that the possibility of a reduction of armaments is closely bound up in the
minds of Governments with the conditions of security which exist or which may be created. At
every stage of the debates, this notion of security, conceived not only for the advantage of one
or several countries, but in the interests of all, has re-appeared. Thus the problem before us has
revealed itself to be political as much as technical; in the sphere of disarmament and in the
sphere of security progress must be made on parallel lines.
With this conclusion is connected another, which on the occasion of the discussions aroused
by President Hoover’s proposals met with unanimous approval—namely, that the task which
lies before the Conference consists in increasing the comparative power of the defence through
decreases in the power of the attack. With this end in view, reductions of effectives and quanti¬
tative and qualitative reductions of material have been contemplated. Considered from the
aspect of material alone, there appeared to be a danger that the problem would prove insoluble;
then, when effectives came to be considered, the difficulty arose of comparing different types
of military organisation, each of which has its own special requirements and uses. The French
delegation is convinced that the Conference, if it is to succeed, must not hesitate to examine
the problem as a whole. It is much less important to enquire whether a particular type of material
can facilitate aggression than to determine the form of military organisation which in a given
area and in given political conditions would make a policy of aggression more difficult. Once
this has been determined, the different armies of the area considered will by degrees have to be
brought into line with this type.
By this method, and by this method alone, can a solution be found for a problem which
has recently arisen in an acute form before the Conference.
While the French Government has objected to the conditions in which the claim for equality
of rights has been put forward, while it does not recognise the force of the legal arguments on
which this claim is based, and while it persists in the belief that any solution involving re-armament
would be unacceptable as being contrary to the very purpose of the Conference, it has never
denied that the problem was among the political problems brought up before the Conference,
as was stated by the French Prime Minister on July 22nd, 1932, in the General Commission.
The French delegation has every confidence that its proposals would permit of an equitable
solution of this problem in the interests of general peace by the progressive equalisation of the
Series of League of Nations Publications
IX. DISARMAMENT
1932. IX. 58.
S.d.N. 3.180 (F.) 2.475 (A.) 11/32. Imp. Kundig.