881.00/862
The Chargé in France (Whitehouse) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 15.]
Sir: With reference to the Department’s telegram No. 290 of October 20, 1 P.M., to London, repeated to this Embassy, in which I was instructed to bring informally to the attention of the Foreign Office a statement setting forth the attitude of the United States Government in regard to the Conference of Experts for the determination of the future status of Tangier, and to my telegram No. 419 of October 23, 4 P.M., stating that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs gave verbal assurances, pending a written reply, that American citizens in Tangier would continue to enjoy the favorable privileges [Page 583] provided for in the Act of Algeciras, I have the honor to transmit herewith enclosed copy and translation of a Note dated October 26th,6 from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in reply to the Embassy’s Note above referred to.
It will be seen that the French Government gives assurances that it will maintain in Tangier the principle of the Open Door, and that the results of the Conference will be submitted to all the signatories of the Act of Algeciras with the exception of Germany and Austria.
In conclusion the Note adds that the French Government hopes that the United States having adhered to the draft convention relative to Tangier, “it will consent to give its natural sequence to the recognition which it made of the Protectorate of the French Republic over Morocco and that it will also cancel the American capitulations in the French zone of the Sherifian Empire.”
I have [etc.]
- Not printed.↩