867.602/88a
The Chief of the Division of Near Eastern Affairs, Department of State (Dulles) to the Secretary of the British Embassy (Craigie)
My Dear Craigie: Yesterday I brought to your attention24 reports which the Department had received from Mr. Grew that it was [Page 1023] contemplated to insert in a protocol to the Treaty of Peace with Turkey a provision to the effect that contracts and agreements between the Allied Powers and Turkey with regard to which on October 29, 1914 all formalities had not been fulfilled should nevertheless be considered as valid and be maintained if they have begun to be carried out or if they have been the subject of arrangements between the Ottoman Government and the Allied Governments. I also referred to the Department’s memorandum to the Embassy of March 31st last,25 particularly to the paragraph which related to Article 94 of the draft treaty handed to the Turks at Lausanne in January last and alluded to our conversation of May 9th25a on this general subject.
In this connection I added that Mr. Grew had been instructed to make clear the Department’s objections to the procedure contemplated as one which would not only constitute a dangerous precedent for the future but would lead to uncertainty and foster complications in the future commercial relations between Turkey and other powers. Mr. Grew was further authorized to state that this Government was not prepared to acquiesce in the view that the proposed protocol could properly be invoked to impair vested rights of American citizens and that while this Government would be the first to recognize that valid rights should be respected, it finds no adequate basis in precedent and no requirements of justice to support the provisions contemplated.
This matter was brought to the Embassy’s attention in this informal manner as it is hoped that a solution may be found, through modification or withdrawal of the objectionable features of the protocol, which will render unnecessary the formal statement referred to above. I may add that Mr. Grew has fully informed Sir Horace Rumbold and his French and Italian colleagues of this Government’s attitude in the premises.
Very truly yours,