868.01/218: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in Greece (Atherton)
46. The establishment of a new regime in Greece, in the opinion of the Department, will not make necessary any change in the instructions given you in our telegram 13, January 26, 6 p.m. Your diplomatic relations with the Greek Government should continue, therefore, on the same basis as for the last two months. The Department will decide to whom Laughlin’s letter of credence should be addressed when the time comes for him to present it. It is presumed that it will be to the Provisional President in case a president has not been elected by that time.
You may therefore address to the Minister of Foreign Affairs a formal communication in the following sense:9
“I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your Excellency’s communication of April (blank) informing me of the establishment of the new regime, of the designation of Admiral Coundouriotis as provisional President, and of the plans for holding formal elections according to the constitutional method to be elaborated by the constitutional Assembly. I have been instructed to inform you of my Government’s pleasure in carrying on with your government the official relations which I was authorized to take up in the communication addressed to Your Excellency by the Secretary of State under date of January 29.”
The Department has drafted the foregoing communication with the understanding that the Minister for Foreign Affairs to whom you addressed your communication of January 29, Roussos, is still in office. If he is not, you will change the wording of your note where necessary.
Should recognition be generally withheld by the other powers or should you foresee any serious objection to the Department’s policy as stated above, you may refrain from making your communication to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and at once report to the Department your precise objections to the action contemplated.
The Department sees in principle no reason for delaying recognition and does not wish that our formal relations with the Greek [Page 273] Government should be interrupted unless there are considerations which the Department cannot judge by the information which it has at present.
Telegraph report of action taken.
- Quotation not paraphrased.↩