701.9111/412
Memorandum by the Secretary of State
The Persian Minister called at my invitation. I inquired of him how long he had been in the Diplomatic Service, and he replied for thirty-five years. I then stated that what I was about to say to him was not in any sense a reference to, much less a criticism of, any members of either House of Congress; that I myself had served with them for twenty-four years and on account of long association, and friendship, and understanding no differences could arise between us; and that in fact, as stated, these of my remarks did not directly or indirectly have any members of Congress in contemplation.
I then addressed the Minister and stated that under the laws of the United States, the foreign affairs of my Government were conducted primarily through the State Department, and that it was inexcusable on his part to go over the heads of the State and the entire Executive Department and go to members of the Senate and present his views and the views of his Government in regard to a proposed reservation by the Senate to a pending treaty, about to be voted upon, without the knowledge of the State Department and without any opportunity on the part of the State Department to give to the Senators, thus approached, such comment and views upon and in reply to the representations thus made by the Persian Minister to the Senators. [Page 466] I added that the Minister of course knew that no government could conduct its foreign affairs in this sort of fashion, and that any repetition of such practice by the Minister and his Government would necessarily be treated much more seriously than in the present instance.
The Minister did not deny that he had conferred with and presented data in support of his contention to Senators without the State Department having any chance to know what he was thus presenting or to comment upon it. His chief plea was that other governments permitted any and all kinds of conferences with members of the parliamentary branch of government and representations in the most ex parte manner to them touching the contentions of a foreign government about a given question pending. I of course replied that it was unnecessary to go into the merits of the practices of other governments in any sense; that the law was very definite as to the method of conducting the foreign affairs of my Government.
I concluded with the statement that my remarks to the Minister had nothing to do with the merits of the Small Arms Treaty pending in the Senate, nor to the Reservation presumably in behalf of the Persian Government that was attached to the Treaty before its ratification; but that I was simply making it clear to the Minister that it was not possible for this Government at least to conduct its foreign affairs in the manner undertaken by the Minister and his Government in connection with the recent consideration of the Small Arms Treaty instead of first by the Executive Branch of the United States Government and then by the United States Senate.