Naval Disarmament Treaty

I called at the State Department today, and had a long conversation on various topics with Mr. Castle, the Assistant Secretary of State.

He told me that the United States Government were anxious to bring the Naval Treaty into force as soon as possible, now that it had been ratified by Japan. The only outstanding ratifications at the moment are those of the Saorstát and of Australia. It was understood, as a matter of course, that the Australian Government would take no action before knowing what Japan was going to do. As this reason for delay has now disappeared, it is anticipated that their ratification will be forthcoming immediately. As regards the Saorstát, the State Department had been informed by Mr. Sterling that there was little likelihood of the Treaty being ratified before the Dáil meets in November. I informed Mr. Castle that according to our Constitutional procedure, all International Treaties were submitted to the Dáil for approval before ratification; nevertheless, I promised him to convey to my Government the anxiety of the United States Government to have this Treaty come into force at the earliest possible moment.

[matter omitted]

Saorstát and League of Nations

In referring to the success of the Saorstát in obtaining a seat in the Council of the League of Nations, Mr. Castle inquired as to whether the precedent was not now established by which the Dominions would have continuous representation on the League Council. I informed him that our candidature was not based on that principle; that the Saorstát presented her candidature on her own merits, not because of her membership of the British Commonwealth of Nations. He seemed to be somewhat annoyed because of the attitude adopted by Cuba to the Court Protocol, though he made no observations on the matter beyond saying he did not think that it could delay matters unduly.

He made inquiries as to the economic situation in the Saorstát, and realized from reports he had seen that it was much better than in most of the other European countries. He made no remarks to me about Mr. Sterling, but he has recently been inquiring from Mr. Macaulay and others as to his popularity in Dublin.

During this conversation [matter omitted] I had an opportunity of emphasizing the International status of the Dominions as well as their possession of full extra-territorial powers. Mr. Castle said they awaited the result of the forthcoming Imperial Conference with much interest, as it was bound to have a considerable repercussion on Inter-Dominion as well as International economic relations.