611.6731/111
The Ambassador in Turkey (Grew) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 15.]
Sir: I have the honor to inform the Department that Atif Riza Bey, until recently Chief of the Commercial Section of the Foreign Office, and now Turkish Consul General assigned to Jerusalem, called at the Embassy a few days ago to see Mr. Patterson and told him that he regarded his assignment to Jerusalem as more or less temporary and anticipates his reassignment to the Foreign Office some time during 1929, for the purpose of assisting in the negotiations of new commercial conventions necessitated by the termination of the Allied Lausanne Treaties at the end of August, 1929.
With regard to the Turco-American Commercial modus vivendi, Atif Bey suggested the advisability of approaching the Foreign Office after the Assembly reconvenes at the beginning of November of this year with regard to the desirability of the passage of legislation by that body to permit the extension of the modus vivendi from April 10, 1929 to the date on which the Lausanne Treaties expire, for otherwise, without the passage of legislation supplementary to that now existing, the Turco-American Commercial Agreement must by law come to an end on April 10, 1929. The pertinent provisions of Article I of the Law read as follows:
“The Executive Body (the Cabinet) is authorized to enact temporary Commercial Conventions for a period of not exceeding two years, with any foreign State, until a definite Commercial Treaty is enacted with that State.
“In case this period should expire during parliamentary vacation, it will be prolonged up to a maximum period of fifteen days from the date of the first meeting of the Grand Assembly.”
In view of the suggestion of Atif Bey and the assurances given me by Ismet Pasha and Tewfik Rushdi Bey to the effect that “our relations could continue uninterruptedly on the basis of the exchange of notes of February 17, 1927 until it should be your desire to undertake new negotiations” (reported in my despatch No. 127 of January 16, 192837), I have the honor to inquire if the Department desires me to take up with the Turkish Government the question of amending the provisions of Article I of the Law of April 10, 1927 or of enacting other legislation which would permit of the continuation of the present arrangement until such time as an accord of a more permanent character shall have been entered into by the two Governments.
I have [etc.]
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