London Naval Treaty
The
London Naval Treaty was an agreement between the
United Kingdom,
Japan,
France,
Italy and the
United States, signed on
April 22,
1930, which regulated
submarine warfare and limited military
shipbuilding.
It was an extension of the conditions agreed in the
Washington Naval Treaty and is officially termed the
Treaty for the Limitation and Reduction of Naval Armament. It was a revival of the
Geneva Naval Conference of
1927 which had been unable to reach agreement because of bad feeling between the British Government and that of the United States.
The signatories agreed to build no new
capital ships until
1937. A number of existing capital ships were scrapped. No existing vessels were to be converted to
aircraft carriers. The construction of submarines was limited to vessels under 2,032 metric tons. The total completed tonnage of
cruisers (split into
heavy cruisers with guns exceeding 6.1 inches (155mm) calibre and
light cruisers with smaller guns),
destroyers and submarines to be built by 1937 was limited as was the individual tonnage in each category.
Article 22 relating to submarine warfare declared that
international law applied to them as to surface vessels. Also merchant vessels which did not demonstrate "persistent refusal to stop" or "active resistance" could not be sunk without the ship's crew and passengers being first delivered to a "place of safety".
[Treaty for the Limitation and Reduction of Naval Armaments, (Part IV, Art. 22, relating to submarine warfare). London, 22 April 1930]The next phase of attempted naval arms control was the
Second Geneva Naval Conference in
1932. This was followed by the
Second London Naval Treaty of 1936.
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Treaty of London - List of treaties signed in London.
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Text of the treaty
