791.003/82: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Persia ( Philip )
24. Your 26, March 13, noon; 23, March 7, 1 p.m.; 22, March 6, noon; and 21, March 5, 11 a.m.
[Paraphrase.] You are to inform Teimourtache orally that the Government of the United States is agreeable in principle to the negotiation of a new treaty with the Persian Government; but this Government would like to reach an understanding with the Persian Government first, before sending you instructions to proceed further with more detailed negotiations, on the following six points, set forth below. Discreetly let Teimourtache understand that this Government, having in mind the role he is playing for Persia’s advancement and his own personal comprehension of Persia’s relations in general with the Western World, and in particular with the United States, has instructed you particularly to confer with him. After you have enumerated to him the six points below, you are to emphasize the importance this Government attaches to the principles therein indicated. After your conversation with him, you are to inform the proper official in the Persian Foreign Office in the sense of the first sentence of this paragraph, and thereupon you will leave with said official an aide-mémoire containing the six points but without any written comment.20 [End paraphrase.]
- “I. The appointment of foreign judicial advisers to assist the Persian Government in the contemplated establishment and in the conduct of modern judicial and penal systems.
- II. The establishment of a system of modern Civil, commercial and criminal courts under supervision of the Ministry of Justice in which properly qualified lawyers may act as attorneys, in which American citizens shall enjoy public trials and, while subject to processes issued from such courts, may not be arrested, nor may their premises be forcibly entered and searched without a warrant from the competent judicial authority, countersigned by one of the judicial advisers.
- III. In matters of personal status and family law and in respect to the law of testamentary or intestate succession to movable property and the distribution and liquidation thereof the non-Moslem nationals of the United States in Persia shall be subject exclusively to the jurisdiction of the national tribunals or other national authorities of the United States or of the competent State, territory or possession thereof.
- IV. American citizens shall receive no less favorable treatment than Persians as regards taxation.
- American merchandise shall, upon importation into Persia, be accorded the lowest rates of duty in force at the time of such importation.
- V. After the termination of the present American-Persian Treaty, American citizens shall be accorded full and adequate protection and the treatment to be enjoyed by American citizens in Persia shall at no time be inferior in any respect to that enjoyed by any other foreign nationals in Persia.
- VI. The vested rights of American educational, missionary and eleemosynary enterprises shall be respected and they shall be allowed to carry on and to develop such activities as are not inconsistent with public order and good morals.”
[Paraphrase.] Should these instructions not be entirely clear to you, or if you consider any feature thereof unwise, you are to cable the Department and await a reply before you take action. [End paraphrase.]
- Also communicated by aide-mémoire to the British, French, German, and Italian representatives at Washington on April 7, and by mail to the Embassies in Great Britain, France, Germany, and Italy on April 13 (file No. 791.003/83).↩