875.6363/133
The Minister in Albania (Grant-Smith) to the Secretary of State
[Received January 16, 1924.]
Sir: Referring to Mr. Swift’s despatch of October 3rd last, No. 165,15 in which he reported that members of the Albanian Government [Page 397] had been of the opinion that the question of the Anglo-Persian proposals for an oil concession would not be brought before the National Assembly during the short session then in progress, and that, to the surprise of many of the administration party and of the opposition, the question appeared on the agenda given out the morning of September 24th for discussion during that day’s session, I have the honor to report that, in endeavoring to account for the sudden discontinuation of the discussions, there is an interesting factor of which the Chargé d’Affaires seems to have been unaware.
It appears, according to Mr. Swift’s report, that during a secret session on the morning of the 26th the Minister for Foreign Affairs stated, in reply to an interpellation, that the matter under consideration had no political significance and that he knew of no reason why it should not be considered strictly on its merits as an economic question.
It will be recalled that the British Minister had a long conference with the Prime Minister on Sunday the 23rd of September, that the following morning the oil concession question was unexpectedly brought before the National Assembly, that it was dropped, equally unexpectedly on the 26th.
My French colleague informs me that during the interview which he had with Ahmet Bey on the 26th, when the latter admitted frankly that the British Minister had renewed his threats of withdrawal of support on the boundary commission, M. Billecocq declared that the Albanian Government need entertain no fears in that regard and that he formally gave him the French Government’s guarantee that Albania would obtain the southern frontier. (Je vous donne la garantie de mon gouvernement que vous aurez votre frontière du sud). The Minister for Foreign Affairs’ declaration during the secret session reflected the Government’s momentary feeling of security, for Italian support could also evidently be counted upon. The discussion was discontinued, towards which result, doubtless, the reasons assigned by Mr. Swift had their due weight.
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I have [etc.]