711.672/550: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the High Commissioner in Turkey (Bristol)
3. Your telegrams No. 3, January 24, midnight, and No. 4, January 25, 6 p.m. The Department is not altogether able to reconcile certain paragraphs in your telegram No. 3, namely, paragraph numbered (3) and next to last sentence of paragraph numbered (6). It is not, therefore, altogether clear to the Department whether there is any possibility that Tewfik Rouschdy Bey will change his reaction towards resuming diplomatic relations prior to the exchange of ratifications of some kind of a treaty.
If the resumption of diplomatic relations is made to depend upon the exchange of ratifications of a treaty requiring the consent of two-thirds of the Senate, then the formal, official contact between the United States and Turkey, which the Government of the United States desires to see reestablished in the shortest possible time, will be rendered uncertain or at the most subject to delay. The Department is cognizant of the practice of the Government of Turkey not to resume diplomatic relations until after the exchange of ratifications of a treaty has taken place. In view of the constitutional role which the United States Senate has in the ratification of treaties and the [Page 779] attitude of the minority party in the Senate at this time, the above-mentioned practice of the Government of Turkey has consequences for the relations between the two countries which it very clearly has not had for the relations between Turkey and other nations. You should likewise keep in mind that a brief treaty of amity might prove to be even more objectionable to the United States Senate than the Lausanne Treaty.
Would the Government of Turkey, for instance, be willing to resume diplomatic and consular relations with this country on the basis of an exchange of notes which would reproduce article 2 of the treaty with Denmark, signed January 26, 1925, but modified so that it would apply to consular relations as well as to diplomatic relations? In addition, this exchange of notes should contain or be supplemented by assurances along the lines of those which Tewfik Rouschdy Bey mentioned in paragraph numbered (1), point (a), and in the last sentence under point (e), of your telegram No. 3.
If the Government of Turkey fears that the Government of the United States at some future time might endeavor to revive the capitulations, you should inquire very discreetly whether that fear might not be allayed by including an understanding in the above exchange of notes that in case the Lausanne Treaty is not ratified when the next session of Congress closes, possibly as late as June 1928, consideration will then be given to the negotiation of an extradition treaty and of conventions of establishment and residence, commerce, naturalization, and consular rights.
The procedure set forth in the above paragraphs, you will note, covers practically every matter mentioned by Tewfik Rouschdy Bey, but by an exchange of notes rather than by a treaty.
You should discuss the above matters with Tewfik Rouschdy Bey as thoroughly as possible consistent with the informal and exploratory nature of your present conversations, and telegraph the Department as soon as possible your definitive recommendations.