767.68119/562: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Special Mission at Lausanne
117. 1. Your 272 of April 29. The course you suggest is sanctioned by the Department, Whenever you judge the moment opportune you may begin informal discussions with the Turks and with the Allies, looking toward first, the negotiation of a treaty, and second, a participation, such as you recommend or as the situation may hereafter require, in drafting the Turkish declaration and the conventions.
2. The Department notes that the substance of the conventions is in part virtually the same as that of the project of a treaty sent to you through the legal expert on your staff. It is assumed, therefore, that you will not wish to resort to the Department’s project except as the conventions do not make adequate provision for matters in which the United States is especially interested.
3. It is important that nothing be done which may enable the Turks, through their private dealings with you, to sow discord between you and the Allied delegates. But the Department hopes that you may escape these embarrassments by a prudent association with the Allies in negotiating their settlement with Turkey.
4. There seems to be no advantage in sending you more precise instructions now, unless you particularly desire them, as you will have more abundant information than the Department has upon which to base your choice of means for giving effect to the present general instructions and to those you received in Department’s 28 of April 19.