365.115 D 58/79: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the High Commissioner in Turkey (Bristol)
182.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
(2) Please instruct delegate at Angora to take up orally with appropriate Turkish officials question of transfer of real property. The delegate should state that our Government is loath to believe that, at a time when neither Turkey nor the United States has ratified the treaty signed at Lausanne, the Turkish Government will desire by an arbitrary decision to raise openly an issue as to American rights in this matter which existing agreements between Turkey and the United States clearly define. The delegate may add that Turkish nationals are freely given the right to acquire and own real property in the United States, despite the breaking of diplomatic relations, to the extent that other friendly aliens enjoy this right and that the American Government has observed with concern that Turkey [Page 739] has continued restrictions against citizens of this country, which the state of relations between the two countries at no time justified and which Turkey has now withdrawn as applied to nationals of states with which Turkey has recently been at war. Under these circumstances it would obviously be a discrimination against citizens of the United States to continue these restrictions.