Office of the Historian

767.68119/618

Report of the Subcommittee of the Lausanne Conference Charged with the Study of the Regime of Religious, Scholastic, and Charitable Institutions, May 18, 192326

Lausanne, May 18, 1923
[Extract—Translation27]
1.
It is understood that the Turkish delegation considers the phrase “religious, scholastic and charitable establishments as well as institutions for relief”28 as having the same meaning as the phrase employed by the Allies in the draft convention of January 31, 1923,29 and that dispensaries, for example, are included in the expression “medical establishments.”
2.
It is understood that the phrase “recognized as existing in Turkey before the 30th October, 1914,” includes not only the institutions which, having been recognized as legally existing at the date indicated, actually exist, but also those institutions which have not again resumed their activity.
3.
It is understood that if the Turkish Government undertakes to examine with good will the case of other similar institutions existing in fact in Turkey at the date of the treaty of peace, it follows that it will not close these institutions pending the examination thus contemplated.

The Turkish delegation confirms its preceding assurances on these three points.

  1. Transmitted to the Department in despatch no. 18–A, May 21, from the Special Mission at Lausanne. This document is inserted here as it formed an indispensable part of the final settlement at Lausanne between the United States and Turkey. At the meeting of the American and Turkish plenipotentiaries on Aug. 6, the chief Turkish delegate formally stated that the assurances contained in this report applied to American institutions. See minutes of the meeting of Aug. 6, supra.↩
  2. Translation supplied by the editor.↩
  3. The words quoted in this paragraph and in paragraph 2 are taken from an earlier draft of the declaration, afterwards issued under date of July 24, 1923, printed p. 1142.↩
  4. Great Britain, Cmd. 1814, Turkey No. 1 (1923), p. 800.↩