Bases of Agreement: Results of the Negotiations between Great Britain, France and Italy for the Reduction and Limitation of Naval Armaments (February-March 1931)
A. Vessels whose Tonnage is Regulated by the Treaty of Washington
I. Capital Ships
(a) Before December 31, 1936, France and Italy may respectively complete two capital ships, the displacement of each of which will not exceed 23,333 tons and the gun calibre of which will not exceed 12 inches.
(b) On completion of each of these ships France will scrap one ship of the Diderot class; similarly, Italy will scrap approximately 16,820 tons of first-class over-age cruisers (making a total of 33,640 tons).
(c) Without prejudice to a general revision of the capital-ship tonnages established by the Treaty of Washington, and in order to facilitate the conclusion of the present arrangement, the total tonnage in this category accorded to France and Italy respectively under the treaty shall be raised from 175,000 tons to 181,000 tons.
II. Aircraft Carriers
Before December 31, 1936, France and Italy may complete respectively 34,000 tons of aircraft carriers.
Note to I and II. – The French and Italian Governments will give one another as long notice as possible of their intention to seek parliamentary authority for the construction of any ships in either of these two categories.
The above provisions will be included in an exchange of letters between the Ministers of Marine of France and Italy, except the provision contained in paragraph I(c) which will form the subject of a special protocol or declaration.
B. Vessels whose Tonnage is Regulated by the Treaty of London
France and Italy will conform to the following rules in preparing their programmes for construction to be completed before December 31, 1936:-
(a) Cruisers with guns of more than 6.1-inch (155-mm) calibre.
No further construction after completion of the 1930 programme.
(b) Cruisers with guns 6.1-inch (155-mm) calibre or less and destroyers.
The tonnage of new construction to be completed shall not exceed the tonnage which is replaceable in this category before December 31, 1936. Vessels already over-age and vessels becoming over-age during the period of the treaty shall be scrapped on being replaced, except in cases where either France or Italy prefers to scrap instead an equivalent tonnage belonging to the category of cruisers with guns of more than 6.1-inch (155-mm.) calibre.
It is hereby declared that for the purpose of this arrangement the Members of the British Commonwealth of Nations, France, and Italy do not intend to undertake the replacement before December 31, 1936, of any destroyer which will be under sixteen years of age on that date. At the same time it is understood that if the present agreement is brought to an end as a result of the deliberations of the General Disarmament Conference of 1932, the right of replacement under the replacement rules of the London Naval Treaty remains intact.
(c) Submarines
No further construction other than for completion of the 1930 programme and for the replacement of tonnage becoming over-age after December 31, 1931. Over-age vessels shall be scrapped, except where scrapping would result in the total submarine tonnage figure falling below the submarine figure mentioned in Article 16 of the Treaty of London.
Subject to a general revision of the naval question in the course of the Disarmament Conference of 1932, the tonnage of French submarines in commission will not exceed, up to December 31, 1936, the figure of 81,989 tons, representing at the present moment the under-age tonnage of vessels built or building. The Members of the British Commonwealth on Nations maintain that this figure of 81,989 tons is too high in relation to their destroyer figure of 150,000 tons under the London Naval Treaty, but they agree to notify the other signatories of Part III of the Treaty of London that they will not have recourse to article 21 of the London Treaty pending the general revision of the naval question mentioned above. Should it not be possible at the 1932 Conference to arrive at a satisfactory equilibrium between French submarine tonnage and British Commonwealth destroyer tonnage, the Members of the British Commonwealth of Nations will retain their right to make such increase as they may judge necessary in their destroyer figure of 150,000 tons.
C. General Provisions.
(a) France and Italy furthermore declare
(1) that they will accept all the provisions of Part III of the London Naval Treaty in so far as it applies to the Members of the British commonwealth of Nations, the United States of America, and Japan;
(2) that they will accept, in so far as they are concerned, those provisions which are of general application and which do not conflict with the provisions of the present arrangement.[1]
(b) At the time of the signature of this arrangement a declaration in the following sense would be signed either by the Members of the British Commonwealth of Nations, France, and Italy or else by all the parties to the London Treaty:
It is understood that the present arrangement establishes no permanent ratio in any category of ship as between the Members of the British Commonwealth of Nations, France and Italy. In particular, no precedent is being created for the final solution of the question whether, and if so in what manner, tonnage remaining over-age on December 31, 1936, may ultimately be replaced.
[1] The clause “and which do not conflict with the provisions of the present arrangement” was inserted into the agreement by France and Britain without consulting Italy, and was not considered valid by the Italian government. G Bernardi, 1975, Il Disarmo Navale: Fra le due Guerre Mondiali (1919-1939), Ufficio Storico Della Marina Militare, Rome, p403. The Italian objection was that this addition raised doubt as to the right of Italy to avail herself of the LNT30 escalator clause in response to construction by a third party. Memorandum by the Italian Embassy, 12 March 1931, FRUS, 1931, Vol. 1, p378.
Source: DBFP, Series 2, Vol. 1, pp289-291.
