File No. 867.48/325
The Chargé in Turkey (Philip) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 9, 7 p. m.]
1930. Your 2784, June 24, 5 p. m., received July 5. I have had several conversations lately with the Minister for Foreign Affairs concerning your proposal to send relief supplies to Syria and the Lebanon, and asked him yesterday the question embodied in your above instruction. He again stated that all his information convinces him that no famine situation exists, and that owing to exceptionally good crops the supply of wheat is sufficient for the population. He believes that false reports have been sent abroad by unprincipled persons who expect to benefit by any help which may be sent, and that it would convey a wrong impression for the Government to permit the importation and distribution of relief supplies by neutrals there when other regions in Turkey are equally and perhaps more in need of them. In reply to my insistent requests for a prompt reply and acquiescence in the Department’s proposal, Minister for Foreign Affairs said that he had fully represented the proposal to the Minister of the Interior for whose decision he is now waiting. I am doing all I can to obtain that desired permission.
He also said that he had submitted to Minister of the Interior the draft of a proposed reply to be sent to the telegram of the Turkish Chargé d’Affaires at Washington on this subject.