767.68119/174: Telegram

The Special Mission at Lausanne to the Secretary of State

[Paraphrase]

8. Private and confidential interview requested by Secretary of Turkish Legation for himself and Djelal-ed-Din Bey. Child’s report follows: [Page 901]

Turks asked what we thought of mandates and zones of influence. I replied that the American attitude should be evident from our Government’s refusal to receive a mandate and its traditional principles favoring the Open Door, and also from a review of the record of past experiments in zones and mandates and from a consideration of the rank held by such nations as adhered to rule of Open Door rather than of special privilege. The Turks clearly wished to satisfy themselves that the United States would not be in favor of a scheme of zones and mandates, which is offensive to their Nation and Government and which they are anxious to prevent.

The Turks declared positively and with vehement protestations that there are no secret clauses in the treaty between France and Angora.21

They held that surviving remnants of minorities in Turkey are small, and they undertook to supply reliable statistics as soon as received from home. They acknowledged that in the present state of popular sentiment and in present mood of National Assembly it is quite out of the question to give up any Turkish territory in which to establish minorities. They said that the Greeks and Armenians were not wanted, partly because of racial antipathies and partly because any minority becomes an instrument of foreign intrigue, like an unhealed wound both painful and exposed to infection. They were aware of the strength of sentiment in America, and they professed a desire to furnish guarantees as binding as possible if provision could be made for emigration of minorities and their progressive diminution. They agreed that prisoners should be exchanged at once.

The Turks declared positively that their Government wished for participation of American interests in Mosul oil lands as great as and greater than the share taken by any other power.

They stated emphatically that they were ready to assent to all our wishes regarding American missions, philanthropic establishments, properties, and archeological enterprises. Indemnities, however, were not explicitly mentioned.

They represented the capitulations as an accumulation of centuries of grants by unprincipled governments, and they urged that, instead of the capitulations, other satisfactory arrangements could be made for safeguarding the property and commerce of foreigners.

They professed complete readiness to clear the way for a treaty or agreement with the United States by supplying information through their trade and law experts or by any other possible means. They take it for granted that before there can be any commitments they must conclude a treaty of peace with the Allies, and this assumption is somewhat enlightening as regards their hope for a treaty of peace.

Supplementing the above report, we wish to express to the Department our belief that the Turkish representatives here are in embarrassing difficulties. On one side are the representatives of the [Page 902] powers who have shown thus far only a disposition to override them, and on the other is the National Assembly with an insatiable national pride and intent upon a diplomatic triumph.

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Child Grew
  1. Telegram in two sections.
  2. For text of agreement, see Great Britain, Cmd. 1556, Turkey No. 2 (1921): Despatch from His Majesty’s Ambassador in Paris Enclosing the Franco-Turkish Agreement, Signed at Angora on October 20, 1921.