711.5112France/364: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in France (Herrick)89
200. Yesterday Chilton, British Chargé d’Affaires, called to raise the question of what status under the Kellogg treaties the “act of war”, defined in Article 16 of the Covenant, would have with respect to members of the League likewise signatories to the Kellogg pact, the presumption of the British being that a violation of the Kellogg treaties would consist in an act of war and that among acts of war the one contained in Article 16 of the Covenant will have to be considered. Article 16 reads: [Page 103]
“Should any member of the League resort to war in disregard of its Covenant … it shall ipso facto be deemed to have committed an act of war against all other members of the League”.
In reply I informed him that as there is no obligation on members of the League to take war-like measures against Covenant-breaking States, there can be no inconsistency between the proposed treaty and the Covenant of the League, and as a practical matter this Government believes that the members of the League will promptly become parties to the proposed treaty. Moreover I said that it is sincerely hoped that legalistic efforts to justify in advance the violation of the proposed renunciation of war treaty will not be permitted to obscure the issue or delay the conclusion of this treaty in which the peoples of the world have manifested their wholehearted approval.
- Repeated to Great Britain as Department’s No. 167.↩