1 PEACEFUL CHANGE OR WAR? 61plan for the IPR to be held later that year.^189 At the IPR’s second con-
ference, Shotwell, in the course of a round table discussion on diplomatic
relations in the Pacific, had presented a ‘definite constructive proposal’
that he had prepared in association with his colleague of at Columbia,
namely Joseph P. Chamberlain. This proposal was prepared in response
to a declaration issued on April 6, 1927, by the French foreign minis-
ter Aristide Briand in order to mark the tenth anniversary of the entry
into the war by the United States: ‘that France would welcome a specific
engagement with the United States providing for the settlement of inter-
national difference without recourse to war.’^190
Briand’s declaration was made against the background of an inter-
view Briand had conducted with Shotwell on March 22 in which it
emerged that the foreign minister had been looking at a way of giving
expression to the ‘feeling of solidarity in fundamentals’ between the two
‘great democracies,’ namely, France and the United States, ‘in spite of
all the technical difficulties which might arise’ and in fact were already
arising ‘over the question of disarmament.’ In light of this conversation,
Shotwell arrived at the view that Briand’s declaration of April 6, which
was generally received well in the United States, was ‘in reality a serious
offer’ rather than a mere expression of friendship and that it thus called
for some form of definite understanding between the two countries.
Shotwell and Chamberlain thus proceeded to draft the terms of such
understanding. However, based on the knowledge that the American
government desired an understanding concerning the peaceful settle-
ment of international disputes that extended to the Pacific region, the
outcome of their efforts was an instrument capable of being extended by
the United States to any number of powers.^191 Hence, it bore the title
(^189) Institute of Pacific Relations, Institute of Pacific Relations: Honolulu Session June 30
to July 14, 1925: History, Organization, Proceedings, Discussions and Addresses (Honolulu:
Institute of Pacific Relations, 1925), 19–21.
(^190) Condliffe, ed., Problems of the Pacific: Proceedings of the Second Conference, 172,
and ‘Section 27: Draft Treaty of Permanent Peace Between the United States of America
and....,’ in Condliffe, ed., Problems of the Pacific: Proceedings of the Second Conference, 503,
506–7.
(^191) Condliffe, ed., Problems of the Pacific: Proceedings of the Second Conference, 173,
and ‘Section 27: Draft Treaty of Permanent Peace Between the United States of America
and....,’ in Condliffe, ed., Problems of the Pacific: Proceedings of the Second Conference, 503,
507.