875.6363/45
The Minister in Albania (Grant-Smith) to the Secretary of State
[Received January 18, 1923.]
Sir: Adverting to my despatch Number 6 of the 21st instant I have the honor to report that Mr. E. K. Soper, representing the Sinclair Oil Company in Albania, informs me that he has advised the Prime Minister, Ahmet Bey Zogu, of his intention shortly to return to New York; that it was not the intention of his Company to quit the field but he was being recalled for the purpose of going more fully into the question of the proposed loan and that he expected to return to Tirana in time for the reopening of the National Assembly in March when he expected to be in a position to make definite proposals for a loan.
Ahmet Bey thereupon assured him that no concession would be submitted to the National Assembly before the Spring session. This will afford the Sinclair Company time to either take advantage of a turn in the American financial market favorable to investments in eastern Europe or to arrange a loan themselves should the prospects of discovering petroleum in commercial quantities in Albania appear to them sufficiently alluring.
I have [etc.]