711.679 Residence and Establishment/15

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

No. 994

Sir: With reference to the Department’s telegrams No. 13 of March 5, 5 p.m.,3 and No. 15 of March 17, 6 p.m., I have the honor to inform the Department that in my last conversation with the Minister for Foreign Affairs on March 23, he said he hoped that we could very shortly commence negotiations for a Treaty of Residence and Establishment and he said that he was anxious to have this done as soon as possible because the conclusion of a Treaty of Arbitration with the United States4 would be dependent upon an Establishment Convention and that he would be willing to sign the former immediately after the conclusion of the latter.

It therefore became evident that I must explain the situation to the Minister as authorized by the Department’s two telegrams mentioned above and that it would be much better to be frank than to try to gloss the matter over which might leave a flavor of suspicion in his mind. I accordingly told him in strict confidence that while we were prepared in principle to negotiate a brief Treaty of Residence [Page 855] and Establishment embodying the formula suggested by Zekai Bey on October 1, last, it would be impracticable to present the treaty to the Senate during its present session which will presumably end in June and that we would therefore prefer that the Treaty not be signed before the beginning of October, in which case it could be presented to the Senate immediately upon its reconvening in the autumn. Therefore, as the Treaty to be negotiated is very brief, we felt that it would not be necessary to begin the actual negotiations before September or October. I added confidentially certain other arguments for delaying the negotiations until the autumn. The Minister saw the point at once and agreed that it was the only wise policy to follow and that under these circumstances he was perfectly content to delay the negotiations until September or October.

In the course of the conversation, the Minister remarked that he was aware of the formula which Zekai Bey had proposed to me on October 1, last, and that in principle he approved of it. This formula which I possess in the handwriting of Zekai Bey, President of the Turkish Treaty Delegation, is as follows:

“En ce qui concerne les conditions d’établissement et la compétence judiciaire auxquelles seront soumis les ressortissants et les sociétés des deux Pays, la Turquie accorde aux Etats-Unis d’Amérique et les Etats-Unis d’Amérique accordent à la Turquie le traitement national pour les cas ou les lois respectives des deux Pays permettent d’accorder le traitement national et dans tous les autres cas le traitement de la nation la plus favorisee.”

It therefore appears from the foregoing that the matter of negotiating a Treaty of Residence and Establishment need not be further approached until next autumn.

In connection with the reference above to the conclusion of an Arbitration Treaty between the United States and Turkey and with reference to my despatch No. 896 of December 18, 1929,5 and the Department’s reply No. 197, (undated),6 Tevfik Rüştü Bey stated to me in our recent interview that if and when a Treaty of Arbitration should be concluded he would seriously consider coming to Washington himself in order to sign it.

I have [etc.]

Joseph C. Grew
  1. Not printed.
  2. Negotiations for a treaty of arbitration did not result in the signing of a treaty; see Foreign Relations, 1928, vol. iii, pp. 940 ff.
  3. Not printed.
  4. Dated January 21, 1930; not printed.