From Versailles to Geneva: The many forms of interwar disarmament

Abstract

This article examines the six distinct varieties of disarmament pursued in the aftermath of the First World War, each of which had a meaningful impact upon international relations during the interwar period: the arms restrictions imposed upon the defeated powers; the unilateral cuts to armaments and military budgets made by the victors; the limitation of naval arms through ‘private’ treaties among the key maritime powers; the League's limited initiatives to establish regimes of control over armaments during 1920–25; the League's attempt to link arms reductions to the simultaneous creation of new systems of security during 1922–25; and the League's ‘general disarmament’ process of 1926–34, covering all nations and all spheres of armaments. It concludes that the success or failure of all these varieties was always ultimately determined by the political will and the self-interest of the major powers.

Key words:

• disarmament
• League of Nations
• Treaty of Versaillies

Notes

¹Sir Edward Grey (Lord Grey of Fallodon), Twenty-Five Years, 1892–1916 (2 vols, London: Oxford UP 1925) Vol.I, 90.

²Hans J. Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace (New York: Alfred A. Knopf 1948; 3rd edn 1961), 408.

³On the details of the restrictions imposed on Germany and their origins at the Paris Peace Conference, see David Stevenson's article in this collection.

⁴For example, the maximum figures for the defeated powers' armies were: Germany, 100,000 officers and men; Austria, 30,000; Hungary, 35,000; Bulgaria, 20,000; Turkey, 50,000. For all the treaties, see The Treaties of Peace 1919–1923 (2 vols, New York: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace 1924).

⁵On German secret rearmament, see Wilhelm Deist, ‘The Rearmament of the Wehrmacht’, and Manfred Messerschmidt, ‘Foreign Policy and Preparations for War’, both in Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt ed., Germany and the Second World War. Vol. I: The Build-up of German Aggression (Oxford: OUP 1990), 375–86, 555–60; Edward Bennett, German Rearmament and the West, 1932–1933 (Princeton: PUP 1979), 11–40; Francis L. Carsten, The Reichswehr and Politics, 1918 to 1933 (Oxford: OUP 1966), 253–75; Gaines Post, Jr., The Civil-Military Fabric of Weimar Foreign Policy (Princeton: PUP 1973), 159–67, 193–202; and Barton Whaley, ‘Covert Rearmament in Germany, 1919–1939: Deception and Misperception’, in John Gooch and Amos Perlmutter eds., Military Deception and Strategic Surprise (London: Frank Cass 1982).

⁶Quoted in MAE [Ministère des Affaires Etrangères], [Série] Z, Allemagne, Margerie (Berlin) to Briand, 16 Dec. 1929, Vol.139, fos.199–201.

⁷[Kew, The National Archives], FO [Foreign Office records] 371/13619, C6180/45/18, Nicolson (Berlin) to Orme Sargent, 7 Aug. 1929.

⁸[Kew, The National Archives], CAB [Cabinet Papers] 4/19, CID paper 979-B, Memo by Milne (CIGS), ‘The military situation in Germany, January 1930’, 11 Feb. 1930.

⁹SHAT [Service Historique de l'Armée de Terre, Vincennes, Paris], 7N/2620, no.27, Memo by War Ministry, ‘Etude du Budget du Reich de 1929–1930’, 18 Apr. 1930.

¹⁰Quoted in FO 371/14366, C7943/230/18, memo by Col. Needham, 23 Oct. 1930.

¹¹MAE, Z, Allemagne, Memo for Briand, by Quai, 10 July 1929, Vol.138, fos.201–3; MAE, SDN [Série Société des Nations], Briand to Maginot (War), 7 July 1930, Vol.998, fos.255–60. For a summary of the Reichswehr's limited but systematic armaments violations in the early 1930s, see Edouard Daladier to Joseph Paul-Boncour, 19 Jan. 1933, in Pierre Renouvin, Maurice Baumont and Jean-Baptiste Duroselle (eds), Documents Diplomatiques Français, 1932–1939, series I (1932–35), (13 vols, Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1966), Vol.2, no.215. On French reactions to German evasions of Versailles, see the article by Andrew Barros in this collection and Peter Jackson, ‘French Intelligence and Hitler's Rise to Power’, Historical Journal 41/3 (Sept. 1998), 795–824.

¹²Figures from Robert Gardiner, Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships: 1906–1921 (London: Conway Maritime Press 1985).

¹³Great Britain, Parliamentary Papers (House of Commons), Army Estimates, 1919, 1923, 1933; ibid., Air, Army and Navy Estimates, 1919, 1923, 1932.

¹⁴Maurice Vaïsse, Sécurité d'abord: La politique française en matière de désarmement, 9 décembre 1930–17 avril 1934 (Paris: Pedone 1981), 74; and Robert Frankenstein, Le prix du réarmement français, 1935–1939 (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne 1982), 303.

¹⁵CAB 3/5, CID paper 174-A, Memo by Hankey, ‘The Channel Tunnel: Some imperial defence aspects’, 22 May 1930.

¹⁶Speech by Shaw, 10 Mar. 1931, Parliamentary Debates (Commons) Vol.249, cols.1019–20.

¹⁷Speech by Tardieu, 26 Mar. 1930, Journal Officiel (Sénat) No.46, p.512.

¹⁸Speech by Maginot, 5 Oct. 1930, quoted in FO 371/14905, W10707/198/17, Tyrrell (Paris) to Henderson, 10 Oct. 1930.

¹⁹On the interwar naval conferences, see Erik Goldstein and John Maurer eds., The Washington Conference, 1921–1922: Naval Rivalry, East Asian Stability and the Road to Pearl Harbor (London: Frank Cass 1994); Richard Fanning, Peace and Disarmament: Naval Rivalry and Arms Control, 1922–1933 (Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky Press 1995); Emily O. Goldman, Sunken Treaties: Naval Arms Control between the Wars (University Park, PA: Penn State UP 1994); Christopher Hall, Britain, America and Arms Control, 1921–1937 (London: Macmillan 1987); and Phillips Payson O'Brien, British and American Naval Power: Politics and Policy, 1900–1936 (Westport, CT: Praeger 1998).

²⁰On the Rome conference, see Arnold J. Toynbee, Survey of International Affairs, 1924 (London: Oxford UP for the Royal Institute of International Affairs 1928), 77–80.

²¹Reply of the Allied and Associated Powers to the observations of the German delegation on the conditions of peace, 16 June 1919, Foreign Relations of the United States, The Paris Peace Conference, 1919 (13 vols, Washington, DC, 1942–47), Vol.6, p.123.

²²For a detailed discussion of the League's early work on disarmament, see Andrew Webster, ‘Making Disarmament Work: The Implementation of the International Disarmament Provisions in the League of Nations Covenant, 1919–1925’, Diplomacy & Statecraft 16/3 (Sept. 2005), 551–69.

²³League of Nations, Treaty Series, 7/1–3 (1921–22), 331–59; League of Nations, Proceedings of the Conference for the Supervision of the International Trade in Arms and Ammunition and in Implements of War, Geneva, 4 May to 17 June 1925 (Geneva, Sept. 1925), A.13.1925.IX. On this issue, see David R. Stone, ‘Imperialism and Sovereignty: The League of Nations’ Drive to Control the Global Arms Trade’, Journal of Contemporary History 35/2 (Apr. 2000), 213–30.

²⁴League of Nations, ‘Report of the Temporary Mixed Commission’ (30 July 1924), A.16.1924.IX, 20–23; League of Nations, Official Journal 10 (Nov. 1929), 1456–8, 1597–642. See also the most famous attack on the arms manufacturers, H.C. Engelbrecht and F.C. Hanighen, Merchants of Death: A Study of the International Armaments Industry (New York: Dodd, Mead and Co. 1934).

²⁵League of Nations, ‘Reduction of National Expenditure on Armaments: Replies from governments’ (22 Aug. 1921), A.13.1921.IX; League of Nations, ‘Limitation of National Expenditure on Armaments: Replies from Governments’ (4 Sept. 1924), A.40.1924.IX.

²⁶H. Wilson Harris, What the League of Nations Is (London: Allen and Unwin 1927), 60. See, League of Nations, Armaments Year-Book: General and Statistical Information, First year (Geneva 1924), A.37.1924.IX.

²⁷Speech by Cecil, 1 October 1921, in League of Nations, The Records of the Second Assembly: Plenary Meetings (Geneva 1921), 627–31.

²⁸League of Nations, Treaty Series, 9/1–4 (1929), 65–74; League of Nations, Official Journal 14 (Jan. 1933), 48–50.

²⁹Viscount Cecil, A Great Experiment: An Autobiography (London: Oxford UP 1941), 138–71.

³⁰On the Esher plan, see Philip Towle, ‘British Security and Disarmament Policy in Europe in the 1920s’, in R. Ahmann, A.M. Birke and M. Howard (eds), The Quest for Stability: Problems of West European Security, 1918–1957 (Oxford: OUP 1993), 127–53.

³¹League of Nations, Official Journal, special supplement no.9, ‘Resolutions and Recommendations of the Assembly during its Third Session (4–30 Sept. 1922)’, (Geneva 1922), 24–7.

³²League of Nations, ‘Report of the Temporary Mixed Commission’ (30 Aug. 1923), A.35.1923.IX (Part I).

³³Philip J. Noel Baker, The Geneva Protocol for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes (London: P.S. King and Son 1925). I am indebted to Cathrine Bossenmeyer, ‘Anglo-French Relations, European Security and the Geneva Protocol of 1924’ (M.Phil. thesis, University of Cambridge 2002).

³⁴League of Nations, Official Journal, special supplement no.32, ‘Resolutions and Recommendations adopted by the Assembly during its Sixth Session (7–26 Sept. 1925)’, (Geneva 1925), 19.

³⁵On general disarmament, see Bennett, German Rearmament and the West; Vaïsse, Sécurité d'abord; Andrew Webster, ‘An Argument Without End: Britain, France and the Disarmament Process, 1925–1934’, in Martin S. Alexander and William J. Philpott eds., Anglo-French Defence Relations Between the Wars (Basingstoke: Palgrave 2002), 49–71. Also still very useful is John W. Wheeler-Bennett, Disarmament and Security since Locarno, 1925–1931: Being the Political and Technical Background of the General Disarmament Conference, 1932 (London: Allen and Unwin 1932).

³⁶League of Nations, ‘Draft Disarmament Convention submitted by the Delegation of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics’ (20 Feb. 1928), C.46.M.23.1928.IX. I am indebted to Edward Staines, ‘British Reactions to the Soviet Proposal for Universal Disarmament at the Preparatory Commission for the World Disarmament Conference, 1927–1928’ (M.Phil. thesis, University of Cambridge 2004).

³⁸MAE, SDN, Memo by Colonel Lucien, 30 Nov. 1929, Vol.723, pp.140–5.

³⁷Speech by Herriot, 22 July 1932, in League of Nations, ‘Records of the Conference for the Reduction and Limitation of Armaments’, Series B: Minutes of the General Commission, Volume I: 9 February–23 July 1932 (Geneva 1932), 195.

³⁹For more on the contemporary resonance of interwar disarmament, see Andrew Webster, ‘Piecing Together the Interwar Disarmament Puzzle: Trends and Possibilities’, International Journal 59/1 (Winter 2003–4), 187–98.