711.679 Residence and Establishment/52: Telegram
The Ambassador in Turkey ( Grew ) to the Secretary of State
[Received 10:44 p.m.]
15. I presented to Zekai Bey on November 22, as a final proposal, the formula quoted in the Department’s No. 4, November 10, 4 p.m., paragraph (3). He consulted Mustapha Cherif Bey and then proposed a slightly more accentuated formula, which he undertook to submit to the Turkish Cabinet and which, after study, I told him I would recommend to my Government if the Turkish Cabinet approved it. The formula follows:27
“The United States of America and the Turkish Republic, taking note of the fact (constatant que) that the conditions under which the nationals and corporations of each of the high contracting parties may settle and carry on their activities in the territory of the other party should be prescribed in accordance with modern international law and that questions relating to judicial competence and fiscal charges should manifestly be regulated by this same principle, have decided to conclude a treaty to this effect and purpose.”
After the matter was discussed by the Turkish Cabinet, Zekai Bey suggested adding to the above formula, which he had revised, a [Page 871] unilateral declaration to be made in a protocol or procès-verbal by the Turkish delegation to the effect that a void is filled by the establishment treaty, since no treaty relations exist between Turkey and the United States respecting establishment, residence, and judicial competence. Although this formula perhaps may be considered less objectionable than the one in the preamble which was set forth in my No. 9, November 6, 11 a.m., because the expression “treaty relations” presumably would not apply to the February 17, 1927, exchange of notes, I felt that, in view of the Department’s 4, November 10, 4 p.m., paragraph (2), I had no choice except to reject it and to decline to submit it to the Department. Also I had in mind the Department’s 6, November 21, 5 p.m., paragraph (3). Accordingly the negotiations are adjourned.
These negotiations with Turkey unquestionably have revived somewhat the always latent Turkish fears regarding the American attitude and intentions respecting the capitulations. I feel confident that, with time and a little tact at the present juncture, there will subside such irritations as may have been created. I recommend strongly that I be given authority to seek an immediate interview with Prime Minister Ismet Pasha in order to inform him, under my Government’s specific instructions, as follows:28
That the Department is fully alive to the changes which have taken place in Turkey in recent years; that its sole desire is that the development of treaty relations between the two countries should proceed upon the basis of these changed conditions; that it was with such considerations in mind that the Department negotiated the exchange of notes of February 27 [17], 1927, and the commercial treaty of October [1,] 1929, and has been prepared to negotiate arbitration and conciliation treaties as well as a treaty of establishment and residence; and finally that it is a matter of sincere regret to the Department that the anxiety of the Turkish Government with respect to the past should have on more than one occasion delayed the complete regularization of the treaty relations between the two countries.
Should the Department feel that this statement can be strengthened, so much the better.
I should like to leave with Ismet Pasha, at the same time I make the above declaration, a copy of the proposed treaty in the form in which my Government would have been ready to sign it. In order to do this with the maximum effect, I should welcome receiving from the Department its approval of the preamble as set forth above in the first part of this telegram. The first and second articles of the text to be left with the Prime Minister would be in accordance with the Department’s No. 4, November 10, 4 p.m., paragraphs (7) to (9).
I should greatly appreciate an early reply.