781.003/219
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Kennedy) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 31.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer to the Department’s instruction No. 581 of March 17, 193931 and to a letter from the Counselor of the Embassy to Mr. Wallace Murray, the Chief of the Division of Near Eastern Affairs, under date of April 17, 1939. The British Foreign Office has now replied to the Italian note of February 1, which was the subject of the correspondence above referred to. The British note, dated April 29, 1939, was addressed to the Italian Chargé d’Affaires in London. A copy has not been made available, but the substance of the reply is as follows:
The British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs informs the Italian Chargé that he feels he must explain that the Anglo-French Commercial Treaty of July 18, 1939 [1938] in regard to French Morocco does not and cannot affect the rights in the French zone of Morocco of any State other than the United Kingdom, and that, in the opinion of His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom, there can be no question of the legality or the validity of this Treaty, seeing that it does not purport to require the authorities of the French zone to take advantage of any of the derogations from existing treaty provisions to which His Majesty’s Government has agreed, but merely embodies the agreement of His Majesty’s Government, for its part, with regard to these matters and the conditions upon which such agreement is given.
Respectfully yours,
- Not printed.↩