711.672/132: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Special Mission at Lausanne
[Paraphrase]
Washington, July 25,
1923—5 p.m.
264. Referring to Mission’s 555 of July 25.
- 1.
- The Department will rely largely upon your recommendations for meeting the difficulties which have arisen in your effort to complete the negotiations. If Ismet declines to settle claims as already proposed, either by submitting them to a tribunal or by agreeing upon a lump sum, and if in your opinion he has no intention of receding from his position and the negotiations are in danger of breaking down, you may as a last resort adopt the course you have suggested. You should follow the second alternative procedure, namely, an exchange of notes, rather than the first, for the purpose of obtaining promptly an agreement on claims as set forth in the present communication.
- 2.
- In the opinion of the Department nothing would be gained by formally binding the Turkish Government to suspend ratification of the treaty until a claims convention had been negotiated, as a prompt ratification by Turkey is desired by the Department. We should by all means have it clearly understood, however, that unless a claims settlement is made now we will reserve the right to withhold our own ratification pending the negotiation of a separate claims convention. Accordingly we might have an exchange of notes, by which from our side there would be a statement that it is understood that a claims convention will be negotiated without delay and that meanwhile this Government is not committed with regard to submitting the treaties to the consideration of the Senate. From the side of the Turks should come a reply confirming this understanding.
- 3.
- You should of course leave nothing undone to obtain at Lausanne a prompt settlement of the question of claims. Since you are on the ground you should have a more intimate knowledge of the situation than the Department, but it seems hardly credible that the Turks would risk a rupture of the negotiations by declining to settle the question of our claims according to principles which they have already recognized in dealing with the Allies, and which are generally recognized in such settlements between civilized countries.
Hughes