767.68119P/52: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Special Mission at Lausanne
175. Your 402 of June 6. Suggestion in final sentence of your telegram is entirely approved by the Department which would not wish you to fail to give expression to the deep interest of our people and Government in helping to find a solution of the refugee problem and especially in making provision for the Armenian refugees. You may at your discretion in making such statements refer to the communications sent by the Department on March 31 to the Ambassadors of France, Great Britain, and Italy,22 and in particular to the paragraph dealing with the Armenian question.
Also there would be no objection to referring to the trip which Colonel Haskell made to Angora and to the discussion which he had there with the Turkish authorities with respect to the possibility of having the refugees return. Of course the trip of Colonel Haskell was made in an effort to help solve the general refugee problem, including not only that of the Armenians but also of the Ottoman Greeks.
You also could make reference to work in Greece on behalf of the refugees, including many Armenians, done by the American Red Cross, and to the work in Turkey, Greece, Syria and elsewhere by the Near East Relief and other American organizations. It would be appropriate for you to state that the problem will depend for its solution upon a spirit of tolerance on the part of the nations directly involved, as well as upon the willingness of other nations to cooperate in any effort promising a constructive settlement of the problem.
It is hoped, as indicated in our telegram of June 1, 3 p.m., that the Turks themselves will appreciate after the conclusion of peace the disadvantages of their present exclusion policy respecting the refugees and will allow those wishing to go back to Turkey to do so.
The Department endorses your belief that any representations in the form of an ultimatum which might have a tendency to arouse [Page 1020] the opposition of the Turks without gaining practical results would be unfortunate.
See previous statements on December 12 at the 16th meeting of the first commission and on December 29 at the 11th meeting of the subcommittee on minorities, especially last phrase of latter statement.23