Office of the Historian

881.00/844a: Telegram

The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Great Britain (Harvey)

[Paraphrase]
Washington, September 24, 1923—4 p.m.

261. Your No. 405, September 22, 4 p.m.

For your information and for such discreet use as you may wish to make:

At press conference on September 20, 1923, the question was asked whether the United States had sent a note to the interested powers in regard to Tangier. I replied that the Government of the United States had taken no recent action on this matter, but that some time ago it had sent a note which contained a statement in regard to the principle of the open door in Tangier.

[Page 579]

I was referring to the note presented to the French Foreign Office by the American Embassy in France under an instruction from this Department of September 21, 1922.1 The note dealt with the construction and administration of the harbor works at Tangier and was a protest against this concession as being contrary to the provisions of the Act of Algeciras.2

Phillips
  1. Foreign Relations, 1922, vol. ii, p. 723.↩
  2. The text of the Act of Algeciras is printed ibid., 1906, pt. 2, p. 1495.↩