467.11 W 89/29a: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Special Mission at Lausanne

[Paraphrase]

285. The following instruction to the High Commissioner at Constantinople is sent through you so that you may submit your comments and suggestions to Admiral Bristol and to the Department. Repeat to the High Commissioner as our 149.

1.
In giving you authority to sign treaties with Turkey and to postpone the question of claims for future settlement, reserving the right to postpone ratification, the Department informed Grew that it had under consideration the possibility of having further examination of the question of claims take place in Turkey. Grew was also advised that the Department was considering in this connection the advisability of having you go to Angora so that in this way a satisfactory and effective plan for reaching a settlement might be worked out at an early date if possible.
2.
The Department wishes therefore to have you arrange to go to Angora soon, after Shaw36 and Turlington arrive at Constantinople. In order to assist you particularly in matters regarding the claims settlement, Turlington is attached temporarily to the High Commission. The exact time for your trip to Angora is left to your discretion. Should you consider it not advisable to go you should of course advise the Department at once. Ismet Pasha in the exchange of letters with Grew indicated that Turkey was willing to take up the question of claims 20 days after the signing of the treaty. You may think it wise to plan accordingly.
3.
It is the Department’s desire to avoid having any delay by Turkey in ratifying the treaty with us. The Turks may be ready to proceed at once to ratification since they have indicated that they do not expect to file claims against the American Government.
4.
The Department considers it important that our relations with Turkey be regularized soon, at a time not later than that of the establishment of regular relations between Turkey and the Allies if possible. In view of the recess of the Senate it will probably be some time before the treaty can be submitted for ratification in this country. However, it is not the intention of the Department to await ratification before resuming consular and diplomatic relations, if the treaty is ratified by Turkey and the progress made in considering our claims is satisfactory to us.
5.
It is most important that there should be no impasse on the question of claims. The utmost discretion and tact will therefore be required on both sides, especially in resuming claims negotiations. [Page 1173] The danger is that otherwise Turkey and the United States will each be forced to take a position from which it can recede only with extreme difficulty, with the result that settlement will be long delayed. The Department need not emphasize the complications which the question of recognition or nonrecognition by Turkey of the American naturalization of former Turkish subjects may introduce into the claims settlement. It is important that this question of naturalization should not be allowed to become the issue of chief importance in arranging for the settlement of claims. During the Lausanne Conference the attitude of the American Government and that of the Turkish Government were clearly brought out. The American law and the Turkish law are clear and are apparently in conflict. However, the Department hopes that it will soon be able to conclude with Turkey a naturalization convention similar to that which Grew proposed at Lausanne. Further telegraphic instructions on this subject will soon be sent to you, but perhaps it will be better to try to obtain a settlement of the claims question before you take up the naturalization convention.
6.
The Department believes that in view of the situation set forth above the best method of procedure regarding claims would be to establish a commission of American and Turkish representatives to proceed to the consideration of individual claims at an early date. The commission should not be bound by specific rules. In this way we could present important claims offering no serious questions as to categories. Progress with these claims would facilitate the entire negotiation. Should Turkey consent to the establishment of such a committee without making reservations which perhaps we could not accept or which would expressly waive our legal and traditional stand regarding naturalized citizens, the Department would be ready to proceed along this line, not asking Turkey at present to express a willingness to settle claims of all categories which may be presented. If the Turks proceeded in good faith with the examinations of claims the Department would also be prepared to have it understood that points of difference which arose between the representatives of the United States and Turkey on the commission should be presented to the respective Governments for negotiation through diplomatic channels, and that where the representatives agreed, they should submit to the American and Turkish Governments a joint report, the two Governments then to proceed through diplomatic channels to negotiate with respect to the manner in which agreed claims would be settled. Should the Turks consent to have such an agreement embodied in a written communication the Department is ready to proceed without delay with the formation of the committee and to act to have the convention ratified when the Senate reconvenes.
7.
You should submit your views after consulting with Shaw and Turlington and examining the Mission’s records regarding the claims settlement and the various proposals which were advanced with the approval of the Department. When you arrive at Angora begin conversations soon with the Turkish authorities to have the matter promptly settled. Submit any proposed exchange of communications for the approval of the Department before final acceptance.
8.
The Department is proceeding in the meantime with the prompt examination of claims against Turkey. As soon as possible it will forward to you with its recommendations those claims which have already been filed here in proper form. You need not wait, however, for this data before proceeding with the course outlined above.
Hughes
  1. G. Howland Shaw, attached to the High Commission at Constantinople.