890g.6363 T 84/49
The President of the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey (W. C. Teagle) to the Acting Secretary of State
[Received August 26.]
Sir: I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of August 22nd, which I read at a meeting of representatives of the American companies comprising the group interested in the prospective oil development in Mesopotamia. On their behalf, I beg to express their [Page 345] appreciation of the full and frank statement of the Department of State’s views on this important matter, and to advise you that the group will at once proceed with its negotiations with the Turkish Petroleum Company Limited along the lines indicated in the memorandum which I left with you.
The representatives of the American group felt that in acknowledging receipt of your communication, I should again recall the verbal statement which I made to you when I had the pleasure of calling on you in Washington, at which time—in response to your inquiry—I stated that the seven companies constituting the American group were the ones who signed the original letter to you dated November 3rd, 1921,68 being the only companies who as a result of the general meeting of oil companies called by Secretary Hoover and held in Washington, had expressed a desire to become interested in the oil development of Mesopotamia.
Yours very truly,
- Not printed; for summary, see the Department’s reply, dated Nov. 22, 1921, Foreign Relations, 1921, vol. ii, p. 87.↩