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Statement on German Participation in the General Disarmament Conference.

September 20, 1932

THE PRESIDENT said:

"With reference to press dispatches from Paris on the German arms question, the position of this Government is clear. The sole question in which this country is interested is in reducing armaments of the whole world, step by step. We are not a party to the Versailles Treaty and its limitation on German arms. That is solely a European question. The United States has already declared that it takes no part in that discussion. We are anxious that Germany shall continue to participate in the Arms Conference which has now such promise of progress for the entire world, and that she shall lend her aid in this great purpose."

Note: On August 31, 1932, Germany announced its intention to withdraw from the General Disarmament Conference unless its demands for arms equality were met. Germany did not participate in the meetings of the Conference Bureau that began on September 21. A declaration recognizing Germany's right to arms equality was agreed to on December 11. Germany resumed participation in the Conference in January 1933.

Herbert Hoover, Statement on German Participation in the General Disarmament Conference. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/207629

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