611.9131/109: Telegram
The Chargé in Iran (Engert) to the Secretary of State
[Received March 2—1 p.m.]
37. Department’s 17, February 8, 3 p.m. In a conversation with the Foreign Minister yesterday he told me that so far reports from his Minister in Washington had not been very encouraging. He had therefore telegraphed him that the Iranian Government was disappointed. I drew his attention to the fact that the Department had for many months been cooperating wholeheartedly with the Iranian Legation in Washington and with this Legation in an endeavor to assist the Iranian Government, but that unlike totalitarian states we were obviously unable to bring pressure to bear on our commercial and financial institutions to engage in operations which were purely a matter of private enterprise. He said he realized that but he thought there were many informal ways in which a Government could encourage or discourage such activities in the foreign field.