875.6363/118: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in Albania (Swift)
32. Your no. 54, September 25, 1 p.m. The Department is instructing the Embassy in Great Britain to repeat to you Department’s telegram no. 33.12
If an appropriate opportunity presents itself you may state orally and discreetly to the Albanian Minister for Foreign Affairs that rumors (referred to in your no. 54 and previous despatches) have been brought to your attention of undue political pressure in connection with the oil concession, but that you can hardly credit them. You may then inquire if there is any basis for these rumors and, if there is, whether his Government has made any effort to verify, through its diplomatic representatives abroad, the authority on which the reports you describe are circulated.
If in your opinion it would be helpful, you may address a communication in writing to the Albanian Minister for Foreign Affairs inquiring under instructions from your Government if the Government of Albania is prepared to deal with oil-concession contract on its merits.
- See telegram no. 266 to the Ambassador in Great Britain, infra.↩