CO129-552-6 Traffic of arms to China 2-1-1935 - 27-12-1935 — Page 112

(F 6839/60/10)

BRITISH EMBASSY,

ROME.

zoth October, 1935.

Dear Chaplin,

With reference to our telephone conversation of

today regarding the export of arms to China, I write to

say that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Note No. 235190

of October 4th last (a copy of which was sent to you with

our despatch No. 1174 of October 7th) was duly handed back

to a representative of the Ministry this evening, the Treaty

Department having no objection to our doing this. It can

consequently be regarded as cancelled.

In your despatch No. 99% (F 5538/60/10) of September

2nd, you stated that "The United States Government have

"indicated that they are prepared provisionally to

"accept this measure of control"... It was this phrase

(not of course embodied in our note to the Italian

Government) which led me to suppose that you might be

expecting some similar expression of acquiescence on the

part of the Italian Government. But I gathered from you

on the telephone that it was quite immaterial whether the

Italians agreed or not.

We shall therefore concentrate on impressing on

the Italian Government the desirability, in their own

interests, of adopting the procedure suggested by you

in the last sentence of paragraph z of your despatch No. 99%.

Yours ever,

(Signed) A.N. Noble.

(for Jebb)

J. Chaplin, Esq.,

FOREIGN OFFICE.