890F.515/33: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister Resident in Saudi Arabia (Moose)
62. Your 112, September 4, noon. Your telegram implies that you do not believe the King will sign the silver Lend-Lease agreement personally, and that you wish to avoid asking the King to confirm the signature of one of his Ministers by decree, but that you believe the King would agree to give some other kind of confirmation. It is not quite clear to us what is meant by confirmation other than by decree, as suggested in your penultimate paragraph. The objective which is important to State, Treasury and Lend-Lease officials is that the agreement to return the silver be binding upon the Government of Saudi Arabia. We must depend upon your judgment as to how this objective can be achieved, in the light of factors best known to you.
Please telegraph immediately your recommendation as to the method by which a binding agreement can be executed most expeditiously on or shortly after September 13, by which date the agreement will have been telegraphed to Gunter at Cairo. You are authorized to explain the purpose of Gunter’s visit in so far as it concerns silver to local officials if necessary to obtain information upon which to [Page 896] base your recommendation. In making your recommendation, you will of course, give as much weight to the sensibilities of the King and the prerogatives of his Ministers as is compatible with the primary objective, which we repeat, is to obtain an agreement which will protect the interest of the United States Government in the return of the silver.
No signatures are required on behalf of the United States Government. It is a unilateral agreement on the part of the Saudi Arabian Government to return whatever silver is received, ounce for ounce, within a given period of time.