German Policy over Treatment of Armaments Question 
 Memorandum by the Foreign Minister - states German Policy over Treatment of Armaments Question. 
 Source: Documents on German Foreign Policy , series C vol.II p.821. RM 30. 
 BERLIN, January 16, 1935 
 OBSERVATIONS ON THE TREATMENT OF THE ARMAMENTS QUESTION 
 We are still prepared to take part in a convention for the limitation of armaments or for disarmament, but only the basis of full equality of rights. Neither the Italian proposals of January 1934 nor the British proposals of the spring 1934 can serve as a basis for our armaments. Since then the situation has completely changed. All the other States have been feverishly arming, especially in the air. Besides this, the recent rapprochement between the Soviet Union and France is an important new factor for our armaments. The German statements on the limitation of armaments made in the spring of 1934 are, therefore, no longer in any way binding. Any convention which might be concluded should, therefore, not require a declaration of the state of the armaments of the participants in the convention, and should confine itself to limiting or forbidding internationally the use of certain weapons (for instance the use of poison gas), or to limiting their use to the actual theatre of war (for instance, allowing the use of bomber aircraft only in the actual theatre of war and to a depth of fifteen kilometres). Should an agreement on the abolition of certain kinds of arms be reached, we should be prepared to take part in this on condition that this abolition is carried out within six months and uniformly by all the participants in the pact. No information whatsoever is to be given on the state of our armaments. All the Great Powers and the smaller European States would have to participate in the convention. 
 v. NEURATH