800.6363/218
The Ambassador in France (
Wallace
) to the Acting Secretary of
State
Paris
,
January 14,
1921
.
[Received January 26.]
No. 2036
Sir: In answer to the Department’s No. 681,
December 1, 1920, enclosing for delivery to the French Foreign
Office, a copy of a note addressed to Earl Curzon under date of
November 20th on the subject of petroleum resources in the Near
East, and directing me to obtain an interpretation by the French
Government of the provisions of the agreement between Great Britain,
Italy and France, signed at Sèvres on August 10, 1920, in the light
of the note above referred to, I have the honor to enclose herewith,
in copy and translation, the reply received from the Minister for
Foreign Affairs setting forth the French point of view in regard to
the clauses of the said tripartite agreement.
I have [etc.]
[Page 675]
[Enclosure—Translation85]
The French Minister of Foreign Affairs
(
Leygues
) to the American
Ambassador (
Wallace
)
Paris
,
January 12,
1921
.
Mr. Ambassador: In your letter of
December 24, communicating to me the text of a note addressed by
the Federal Government to the British Government under date of
November 20, in regard to the question of mandates, you were
good enough to request me to inform you of the French
Government’s interpretation of the clauses of the treaty signed
at Sèvres, August 10, 1920, between France, Great Britain, and
Italy, relating to the creation in Anatolia of spheres of
special interest.
I hasten to inform you that the agreement in question is based
solely upon the system borrowed from Anglo-Saxon juridical usage
of “self-denying undertaking” pursuant to which each contracting
party without any prohibition whatsoever in regard to the others
or to third parties, denies himself certain actions. It would
seem that an agreement based upon such principles should be the
less likely to arouse the susceptibilities of other powers
inasmuch as article 10 of the agreement of August 10 provides in
favor of nationals of third powers for all economic purposes,
free access to the so-called zones of special interest, and thus
sanctions in favor of the said powers the principle of
commercial equality.
The American Government has doubtless not failed to observe,
furthermore, that by this agreement the three signatory powers
have assumed certain engagements which may prove particularly
heavy as regards the protection of minorities in Turkey.
Kindly accept [etc.]
