The two High Contracting Parties, inspired by the principles which have led them to sign the Convention of Friendship and Arbitration, of to-days date, and desirous of preventing any unnecessary increase in their expenditure on naval armaments, and of keeping pace with one another in the limitation of their respective forces, with due regard to the conditions particular to each of the said states, undertake to effect no order, acquisition or construction of war units or armaments, without having notified the other party six months’ previously, so that both Governments may thus be enabled if necessary to prevent any competition in the sphere of naval armaments by means of a friendly exchange of views and of explanations on either side in a spirit of perfect sincerity.[1]
[1] This text is drawn from TN Dupuy & GM Hammerman (eds), 1973, A Documentary History of Arms Control and Disarmament, RR Bowker & Company, New York & London, p169. It differs from the text reproduced in RD Burns & SL Chapin 1970. Near Eastern Naval Limitation Pacts, 1930-1931, East European Quarterly, 4 (1), 72-87, but the differences are not material, and appear to be the result of independent parallel translations from the original text.
