Papers relating to the foreign relations of the United States, 1929, Volume III

711.672(1929)/6

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Turkey (Grew)

Washington, August 6, 1929.

No. 167

Sir: Reference is made to your telegram No. 17 of March 24, 11 a.m., 1929, and to the Department’s telegraphic reply No. 17 of March 27, 3 p.m., concerning the proposal of the Turkish Government to conclude with this Government, by an exchange of notes, a new modus vivendi according mutual most-favored-nation treatment in customs matters in order to allow this Government ample time to secure the ratification of a brief commercial convention the conclusion of which the Turkish Minister for Foreign Affairs, as set forth in your despatch No. 676 of February 25, 1929, suggested to you on February 17, 1929, and to which the Department assented in its telegram No. 15 of March 18, 2 p.m., 1929.

The Department has meanwhile noted your telegram No. 37 of June 6, 11 a.m., 1929, reporting the desire of the Turkish Minister for Foreign Affairs and of the Chairman of the Turkish Treaty Delegation that there be included in the present short treaty a provision for the mutual application of most-favored-nation treatment to navigation as well as to customs matters.

While the above suggestion of the competent Turkish authorities is contrary to the verbal understanding previously arrived at between you and the Turkish Minister for Foreign Affairs regarding the scope of the treaty to be negotiated, the Department has, after a careful study of the situation, decided to accommodate the Turkish Government in this matter and encloses herewith for your consideration and presentation at an appropriate time a short draft treaty of commerce and navigation which this Government would be pleased to negotiate with the Government of Turkey. A Full Power to sign such a treaty is also enclosed.²⁷ However, for reasons fully set forth in a memorandum of July 20, 1929 from the Solicitor, of which a copy is enclosed,²⁷ the Department has considered it necessary that the article covering navigation in the proposed treaty should provide for national as well as most-favored-nation treatment in all that concerns the vessels of both countries, exception being made of coastwise shipping which shall enjoy most-favored-nation treatment only.

As you will note from Article III of the enclosed draft text incorporating the above stipulations, provision has been made that, after one year from the date of the exchange of ratifications, the mutual obligations regarding the national treatment of vessels contained in paragraph (a) of Article III “may be terminated by either party on ninety days’ notice and shall cease sixty days after the enactment of inconsistent legislation by either High Contracting Party.”

While there would appear to be little likelihood that the above cited provision of Article III would ever be invoked during the life of this treaty, the Department has deemed it expedient, in preparing the present draft, to take into consideration the well-known views of the Senate on the subject of national treatment of foreign shipping as evidenced by its reservation to the Treaty of 1923 with Germany.²⁸ Bearing this fact in mind, the Department has, in the case of treaties of commerce and navigation negotiated in 1925, 1927, and 1928 with Esthonia, Honduras and Latvia, respectively, copies of which are enclosed for your consideration,²⁹ incorporated in the texts of the treaties themselves the substance of the above-mentioned Senate reservation to the Treaty with Germany. It has been thought advisable to resort to this apparently necessary expedient in the above cases in order to avoid the more objectionable procedure of a Senate reservation. Particularly in the case of a treaty with Turkey at the present time would the present expedient appear to be advisable, since any reservation attached to the treaty by the Senate might encourage the Grand National Assembly to attach in turn reservations of a more delicate nature.

It may be added in this connection that the Department is endeavoring to induce the Senate to recede from its present position with regard to the national treatment of foreign vessels. Pending, however, a reversal of the Senate’s views on this subject, the Department has no other alternative than that resorted to in the present draft treaty. Inasmuch, however, as all the countries with which the United States has recently negotiated treaties of commerce and navigation have accepted in substance the proviso contained in Article III of the present draft treaty, the Department trusts that you will be able to overcome any feeling on the part of the Turks that the provision in question is in any way unusual or that the Department, in proposing it, has considered it necessary in the particular case of Turkey. The Department leaves entirely to your discretion the procedure and arguments which you may deem it desirable to utilize in overcoming any objections, such as the above, which the Turkish authorities may offer to the draft treaty in its present form.

As will be noted from the concluding paragraph of Article III of the present draft, provision is made for the treaty to be drawn up in duplicate in the English and Turkish languages, the assumption being that both texts are to be binding in case of dispute. It is therefore suggested that you cause the Turkish text thereof to be carefully checked as to its accuracy before your signature and seal are affixed thereto. For this purpose it is hoped you may be able to secure the assistance of Mr. Charles E. Allen and Mr. Lewis Heck.³⁰

Referring to your despatch No. 727 of April 27, 1929 reporting the request of the Turkish Government to be advised of the names of the technical assistants whom you propose to designate for the purpose of the treaty negotiations, you may designate for that purpose such members of your staff as you may desire and give notification thereof to the Turkish Government.

I am [etc.]

Henry L. Stimson

[Enclosure]

Draft Treaty of Commerce and Navigation

The United States of America and the Turkish Republic, desirous of maintaining and furthering their commercial relations and of defining the treatment which shall be accorded in their respective territories to the commerce and shipping of the other, have resolved to conclude a treaty of commerce and navigation and for that purpose have appointed their plenipotentiaries.

• The President of the United States of America:
• The President of the Turkish Republic:

Who, having communicated to each other their full powers, found to be in due form, have agreed upon the following articles:

Article I

In respect of import and export duties and other duties and charges affecting commerce, as well as in respect of transit, warehousing and other facilities, and the treatment of commercial travelers’ samples, the United States will accord to Turkey and Turkey will accord to the United States, its territories and possessions, unconditional most-favored-nation treatment; and in the matter of issuing licenses for, or the placing of prohibitions or restrictions on, imports or exports, each country will, so far as it may at any time employ such methods, accord to the commerce of the other treatment as favorable, with respect to commodities, valuation and quantities, as may be accorded to the commerce of any other country.

No higher or other duties shall be imposed on the importation into or the disposition in the United States, its territories or possessions, of any articles the produce or manufacture of Turkey than are or shall be payable on like articles the produce or manufacture of any other foreign country;

No higher or other duties shall be imposed on the importation into or the disposition in Turkey of any articles the produce or manufacture of the United States, its territories or possessions, than are or shall be payable on like articles the produce or manufacture of any other foreign country;

Similarly, no higher or other duties shall be imposed in the United States, its territories or possessions, or in Turkey, on the exportation of any articles to the other or to any territory or possession of the other, than are payable on the exportation of like articles to any other foreign country;

Every concession with respect to any duty, charge or regulation affecting commerce now accorded or that may hereafter be accorded by the United States or by Turkey, by law, proclamation, decree, treaty or agreement, to the products of any third country will become immediately applicable, without request and without compensation, to the commerce of Turkey and of the United States and its territories and possessions, respectively;

The stipulations of this article do not apply:

(a) To the treatment which the United States accords or may hereafter accord to the commerce of Cuba or of any of the territories or possessions of the United States; or to the commerce of the Panama Canal Zone; or to the treatment which is or may hereafter be accorded to the commerce of the United States with any of its territories or possessions; or to the commerce of its territories or possessions with one another or with the Panama Canal Zone;

(b) To such special advantages and favors which Turkey may accord in the matter of the customs tariff affecting products originating within the territories separated from the Ottoman Empire following the War of 1914; or to the treatment which Turkey may accord to purely border traffic within a zone not exceeding fifteen kilometers wide on either side of the Turkish customs frontier;

(c) To prohibitions or restrictions of a sanitary character designed to protect human, animal or plant life; or to regulations for the enforcement of police or revenue laws.

Article II

(a) In all that concerns the vessels of the United States and Turkey respectively, with the exception only of those engaged in coastwise traffic, the principle of national treatment shall be maintained by each country toward the other country.

(b) In all that concerns the vessels of the United States and Turkey respectively, including those engaged in coastwise traffic, the principle of unconditional most-favored-nation treatment also shall be maintained by each country toward the other country.

Article III

The present Treaty shall be ratified and the ratifications thereof shall be exchanged at . . . . . . . as soon as possible. It shall take effect at the instant of the exchange of ratifications and shall remain in effect for a period of five years and thereafter until one year from the date when either of the High Contracting Parties shall have notified the other of an intention to terminate it; provided, however, that the obligations of paragraph (a) of Article II hereof may, after one year from the date of the exchange of ratifications, be terminated by either party on ninety days’ written notice and shall cease sixty days after the enactment of inconsistent legislation by either of the High Contracting Parties.

In Witness Whereof the respective plenipotentiaries have signed the same and have affixed their seals thereto.

Done in duplicate in the English and Turkish languages at Angora this … day of . . . . . nineteen hundred and twenty-nine.

27. Not printed.
27. Not printed.
28. Treaty of December 8, 1923, Foreign Relations, 1923, vol. ii, p. 29; for Senate reservation of February 10, 1925, see ibid., p. 45.
29. For texts of treaties, see ibid., 1925, vol. ii, p. 70; 1927, vol. iii, p. 101; and 1928, vol. iii, p. 208.
30. Lewis Heck was formerly Turkish Secretary of Embassy in Turkey.