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

761.6711/18a

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

Washington, January 7, 1930.

No. 194

Sir: Adverting to the Department’s telegram No. 70 of December 28, 5 p.m., 1929, and to your telegraphic reply No. 76 of December 29, 10 p.m., 1929,⁴³ regarding the declaration which the Turkish Ambassador was instructed to read to the Secretary of State in connection with the Protocol signed at Angora on December 17, 1929, renewing the Turco–Soviet Treaty of Neutrality and Non–Aggression signed at Paris on December 17, 1925, there is enclosed herewith for your information a copy of the declaration as made by the Ambassador in French to the Secretary on January 2, 1930, together with an English translation thereof.

As will be noted, the text of the enclosed declaration differs in some particulars from the text furnished you by the Turkish Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs and which was transmitted in your telegram No. 76 of December 29, 10 p.m., 1929.

The Department would be pleased to receive any further comments which you may have to make on the circumstances attending the Turkish Ambassador’s declaration.⁴⁴

I am [etc.]

For the Secretary of State:

Francis White

[Enclosure—Translation]

Declaration Made by the Turkish Ambassador (Ahmet Muhtar) to the Secretary of State on January 2, 1930

The Government of the Turkish Republic and the Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics have inserted in the Treaty of Neutrality and Non-aggression which they have just prolonged, a clause whereby each Party undertakes to request the assent of the other before concluding with neighboring states, by land or by sea, of the other Party any political agreement that goes beyond the field of normal relations.

It being obvious that this agreement is operative only with respect to the location in Europe and in Asia of the two Parties, no mention therein of this geographical factor was considered necessary. The text already made public is not supplemented by any complementary agreement.

Moreover, the Turkish Government has by this agreement effected an accord which emphasizes all the more its determination to follow a policy of peace, a policy clearly opposed to a system of alliances. It should be added that the negotiations which have taken place with the Soviet Government have had to do exclusively with the relations existing between the two neighboring states. In the agreement recently signed no specific Power was thought of: and there was no thought whatever in this connection of the United States of America.

In conclusion I am authorized to declare in the name of my Government that nothing shall be permitted to interfere with the development of Turco–American relations in every field and that the above-mentioned agreement does not constitute the least obstacle to this development.

43. Neither printed.
44. Despatch No. 903, December 20, 1929, supra, had not yet reached the Department. In despatch No. 939, February 6, 1930, the Ambassador in Turkey further concluded: “It cannot in any way affect Turco–American relations or interfere with any of the types of treaties which the United States might be disposed to negotiate with the Turkish Republic now or in the future” (761.6711/23).