767.68119/394: Telegram
The Special Mission at Lausanne to the Secretary of State
[Received February 1—5:15 a.m.]
226. At the meeting today of three main commissions, following statement was read by Child:
“The United States is represented at Lausanne for three purposes. Our country is represented to protect American interests, idealist or commercial, humane or financial, without discrimination. It is represented to protect, whenever possible, humanitarian interests regardless of their nationality. It is represented to serve in all appropriate ways the cause of peace.
Our declarations have been free from the seeking of special privilege or favor. We have declared for the Open Door in the Near East and our declaration and the spirit of the assent given by the Allied nations in the words of the chief delegates of Great Britain and later in those of the chief delegates of France, speaking for the inviting powers, constitute an accord creating, we hope, a new understanding, a new regime of international relationship in the Near East not only between Western powers seeking to aid development there by friendly and fair competition but between the Near East which desires freedom from political intrigue and those nations who now have no desire for hazardous and costly experiments in policies of political interference.
We have cast whatever weight our opinion might have in favor of freedom of the Straits and the Black Sea because of our sincere belief that the program was for the good of all.
We have spoken against the expulsion of populations when these appeared to menace human beings with suffering and with injustice. We have asked, insofar as it affected religious liberty, that religious functionaries should be allowed to remain where their people wanted them to be. We have asked for the protection of minorities. We have suggested that the problem of refugees in the Near East regions affecting various peoples could only be effectively administered by some joint action, so that unparalleled suffering should be prevented and relieved, that disease should be checked, so that duplication of effort and waste of resources and loss of economies could be avoided. We reiterate that suggestion hoping that the matter may be discussed before the conference ends.
[Page 963]If now at this important stage we can assist in bringing about a peace wanted by the whole world and necessary to the whole world, if we can [add] any contribution to give assurance that the hazards of hostility damaging to all and perhaps wholly destructive of the national vigor of new Turkey may be replaced by agreement, by a stabilized international commerce and the establishment of permanent normal conditions in the Near East, we are ready to give any help in our power.
Perhaps we may be allowed to disclaim the intention to exert any moral influence, if by moral influence it is meant that we set forth our opinions as being more righteous than our neighbors. We ask only that our opinions shall be received when they are founded upon that justice and good counsel which we are all seeking together. I know of nothing which particularly distinguishes the position of the United States here from that of any other nation unless it is the fact that because we are not at war with Turkey and have not been involved in the ancient and bygone politics of the Near East we may bring to bear whatever power there may be in detachment and impartiality. If we have been able to be helpful toward peace we have done so because circumstances had saved us from involvement which would have stripped away our ability to maintain that impartiality and convince others of its sincerity.
At this moment we are able to speak as those who have only that interest at stake which the whole world has at stake—peace.
For weeks in private conversations we have endeavored to speak in this way to the delegates with whom we have enjoyed close association. We have not concealed our views where they have been required nor withheld whatever good offices we could render when they have been asked.
We see no reasons why peace should not be made here; we believe peace will be made here and this belief is not founded upon the sway, this way and that, of accords and dissensions of optimism and pessimism but upon the existence of forces which lead to peace. Unless these forces are met by utter recklessness they are irresistible. The failure of a peace here would be a world calamity; but for Turkey, it would be an irreparable tragedy.
We have observed that many of the difficulties experienced have arisen because of a failure of a newly inspired nation, out of touch because of wars, with the other nations, to understand with how much willingness the other nations of the world are ready to recognize the claims of new Turkey to her independence and her sovereignty and her right to try under favorable circumstances of peace to work out her own destiny.
As we have observed the [that] other nations have failed to weigh the doubts and fears of Turkey, so have we observed that the new Turkey has failed to take into account the doubts and fears which it was natural these other nations might have in regard to the period during which Turkey is establishing her institutions.
We have not failed to make it clear that unless an honorable peace were made with Turkey we could not regard with confidence her future. We have not failed to point out that only by peace, made now, will there be given to Turkey an opportunity to build up her institutions, to engage in development and commerce, to secure the [Page 964] cooperation of other peoples, to begin an orderly relationship with other countries through the exchange of diplomatic representatives and to establish herself in the family of nations. These are advantages to Turkey which are not written in a treaty. It is our view that, though unwritten, they are the most important prizes she could win here.
She would lose them all if she failed to cooperate fully and frankly with the Allies who also entertain an earnest desire to make peace.
She would hazard all her own interests by delay. It is not our purpose to force any of our opinions upon her but it is our purpose with all friendly interest [intentions,] to point out again to the Turkish delegation that the peoples of the nations with which Turkey is making peace have become impatient with a passing of time which promises no further progress, which creates risks of conflicts in the Near East, which fosters distrust and hardens rather than softens the public opinion of the world.
The time has come. The time has come for rapid action, for immediate sincere cooperation to make secure to Turkey at least the general principles of a just peace upon which later perhaps the more complex and technical subjects of negotiations may be worked out and when necessary may be settled by the valuable aid of arbitration.”