Armament > Memorandum on the proposal of the Argentine delegation relating to capital ships (Conf.D.92)

Official No.: Conf. D. 107.
Geneva, April 9th, 1932.
LEAGUE OF NATIONS
Conference for the reduction and limitation
of armaments
MEMORANDUM ON THE PROPOSAL OF THE
ARGENTINE DELEGATION RELATING TO CAPITAL SHIPS
(Conf. D. 92)
Berne, April 4th, 1932.
ihe Argentine Republic has proposed that the countries which are not signatories to
the Washington and London Treaties shall undertake not to construct or acquire, during the
period of validity of any convention which they may sign, any capital ships of more than 10,000
tons (10,160 metric tons), as it regards all such vessels as alike of a definitely aggressive
character. My Government considers that such a compromise would in itself be tantamount
to an effective and practical restriction of naval units, as a real restriction of means of offensive
warfare, and as an effective means of reducing the enormous expenditure entailed by armaments.
Our delegation is of opinion that, before dealing with Chapter B of the draft Convention,
which refers to naval armaments, it would be desirable to adopt a resolution on the proposal
to which I refer. The Naval Commission cannot establish the figures for the global tonnage
and the tonnage per category dealt with in Articles n and 12, Chapter B, until the proposal
has first been adopted or rejected, since, as far as the countries which possess this category
of vessel are concerned, the fixing of the figures limiting the number of such vessels will depend
on the decision taken.
The delegations of Germany, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Spain have
submitted the same proposal, extending it to all States, though Germany slightly alters the
calibre of the guns, while other delegations go further and propose either the absolute abolition
of such vessels (like China) or their conditional abolition (like Italy).
Moreover, the idea of limiting offensive armaments—the fundamental principle underlying
our proposals—has been supported by the majority of the representatives of the nations
convened to the Conference, and is one of the main features in the essential object of
the Conference (Denmark, Yugoslavia, Switzerland, the Netherlands, etc.).
With a view to co-ordinating the various proposals submitted, and as an advocate of the
idea that the reduction of armaments should be carried out by successive stages (as immediate
disarmament would raise too complicated a problem), the Argentine delegation ventures
to propose to the General Commission that it should approve the following motion which,
in our opinion, expresses in the simplest possible form the ideas underlying the proposal
as defined by various delegations, and is also in conformity with the principle maintained by
the others :
It is proposed that an article to read as follows should be appended to the draft
Convention submitted by the Preparatory Commission :
“ Article • • • — The High Contracting Parties undertake not to construct
nor to acquire, during the term of the present Convention, any war vessel not an
aircraft carrier, whose displacement exceeds 10.000 tons (10,160 metric tons)
standard displacement, or which carry a gun exceeding 8 inches (203-mm.) without
prejudice, to the right reserved in that respect by France and Italy when signing
the Treaty of London. ”
(Signed) E. Ruiz Guinazu,
Argentine Minister at Berne,
Delegate to the Disarmament Conference.