Despatch from Patrick McGilligan to J.H. Thomas (London)
(Secret) (Copy)

Sir,

I have the honour to refer to your Despatch No. 58 of the 17th day of December 1931 and to the Report of the Committee on Imperial Defence (Inter-Department Sub-Committee on Preparation for the Disarmament Conference) which was transmitted therewith. The Report adverts to certain difficulties as to the manner in which the figures for the Members of the British Commonwealth of Nations should be shown in the tables annexed to the naval provisions of the Disarmament Convention and makes alternative suggestions for the solution of those difficulties. His Majesty's Government in the Irish Free State have given particular consideration to those parts of the Report which relate to the difficulties referred to and to the suggested solutions thereof. As a result of their examination they have arrived at certain conclusions of principle to which they propose to advert in the paragraphs which follow.

2. In so far as land and air armaments are concerned no problem arises as to the manner in which the figures for the Members of the British Commonwealth are to be shown in the Disarmament Convention. Separate limits will be allocated to each Member of the Commonwealth in the tables appropriate to such armaments. In considering, however, the manner in which the figures of naval armaments of the several Members of the Commonwealth are to be shown, account must be taken of the fact that under the London Naval Treaty the fleets of the several Members of the British Commonwealth are taken together for the purpose of limiting the number and tonnage of ships of war. Thus, as the Report points out, if it should eventually be decided to accept budgetary limitation for naval forces and particularly if, as is anticipated, the provisions of the Washington and London Naval Treaties are to remain the governing instruments as far as numbers and tonnage are concerned, the question arises as to whether some special arrangement in connection with the limitation of expenditure on the naval forces of the Members of the British Commonwealth of Nations will not have to be made. His Majesty's Government in the Irish Free State would point out further that the question stated by the Report to arise in connection with the limitation of expenditure on war material for naval armaments will also arise in connection with the limitation of naval effectives. The matters on which the question would, therefore, appear to arise under the Disarmament Convention are as follows: naval effectives (Article 2), number and tonnage of ships (Arts. 11-13), expenditure on war material for naval armaments (Article 24) and total expenditure on naval forces (Article 29).

3. His Majesty's Government in the Irish Free State agree that some special arrangement must be made in the General Disarmament Convention in respect of the various matters just enumerated, and they have given earnest consideration to the principles upon which such an arrangement should be based and the form which it should assume. In this connection, they have carefully examined the alternative methods set forth in paragraph 72 of the Report, the Suggested Solution in paragraph 74, and the comments in the Paper (No.E.(30) 27) circulated to the Imperial Conference. They are entirely in accord with the solution suggested in paragraph 74 of the Report in so far as it proposes that there should be separate limits for each Member of the British Commonwealth of Nations, and they consider that this principle of separate limits is so fundamental to the position of each Member of the Commonwealth as a Member of the League of Nations that it must form the basis of any arrangement adopted in the General Disarmament Convention. On the other hand, it is obvious that the arrangement adopted must be such as to permit of complete freedom of transfer as between the separate limits allocated to the several Members of the Commonwealth in the relevant tables of the Convention. It is also obvious that the arrangement must be such as to preclude the possibility that, as a result of such freedom of transfer, the totals fixed under the London Naval Treaty in respect of numbers and tonnage of ships of war might be exceeded.

4. With regard to the form which the arrangement to be adopted in the General Disarmament Convention might assume, His Majesty's Government in the Irish Free State feel that it should constitute the subject of a general provision applying to all the tables of naval forces with regard to which the necessity for some special arrangement arises. Such a general provision would in their view find an appropriate place as an article in the Convention itself or in a Protocol thereto. The substance of such a provision would be an agreement to the effect that transfers may take place between the separate limits allocated to the Members of the Commonwealth in the tables affected and that where, as a result of such transfer, an increase takes place in any of the separate limits allocated in those tables to one Member, a corresponding decrease will take place in the appropriate limit or limits of the Member from which the transfer is made.

5. His Majesty's Government in the Irish Free State would point out that a provision in the form suggested in the preceding paragraph would obviate the necessity for the insertion in the Disarmament Convention of any collective limits for all the Members of the Commonwealth taken together. In this connection, His Majesty's Government are of the opinion that the grouping in a single block of the separate limits to be allocated to the several Members of the Commonwealth in the Convention, whether in the tables relative to naval armaments or in other tables, is neither necessary nor desirable.

6. His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom will recall that under Article 6 of the Treaty of 1921 it is agreed between Great Britain and Ireland that 'until an arrangement has been made between the British and Irish Governments whereby the Irish Free State undertakes her own coastal defence the defence by sea of Great Britain and Ireland shall be undertaken by His Majesty's Imperial Forces'. His Majesty's Government in the Irish Free State have considered that Article in the light and context of the draft Disarmament Convention. They are satisfied that no consideration can arise on that Article which would be inconsistent with the arrangement proposed in the preceding paragraphs. It will be apparent to His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom that this Article of the Treaty has a direct bearing on the present naval position of the Irish Free State and, consequently, on the limits to be claimed by the Irish Free State in the tables attached to the draft Convention. His Majesty's Government in the Irish Free State propose to make this bearing clear at the Disarmament Conference.