661.9131/106
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Persia (Hart)
Sir: The Department has received your despatch No. 1159 of June 15, 1932,11 on the subject of the Perso-Soviet Convention of October 27, 1931, and your representations to the Persian Government as to the attitude of this Government with respect thereto. The presentation of a substitute memorandum, as directed by the Department’s telegram No. 7 of April 6, for an aide-mémoire previously left with the Persian Minister for Foreign Affairs,12 particularly the manner in which this presentation was effected by the Secretary of the Legation, has been noted by the Department with satisfaction.
Careful consideration has been given to the views of the Persian Government concerning the importation of merchandise prior to the production of export certificates and the necessity for a bank guarantee in this connection. The Department, however, has not altered its opinion as to what it considers to be privileges equivalent to those accruing to Soviet trade under the above-mentioned Perso-Soviet Convention, nor has it changed its belief that American trade is entitled to such privileges through the most-favored-nation clause of the Provisional Agreement of May 14, 1928. In any further conversations you may have with the Persian authorities on this subject, you should reiterate the views of this Government as contained in the substitute memorandum left at the Persian Foreign Office on April 14, placing equal weight on the question of monopolization and percentage [Page 807] allotment of quotas, especially those quotas affecting American trade, as discussed in the same memorandum.
It would be of interest to the Department to know the present attitude of your British colleague on these questions and whether, in the light of the bank guarantee proposal, there has been any disposition on his part to modify the views formerly expressed to the Persian Government.
With respect to the second note you propose to present to the Persian Government in the event that no action is taken to meet the Department’s position prior to exchange of ratifications of the Convention, the Department believes that no useful purpose would be served by repeating the reasons for submitting a substitute memorandum as outlined in the second paragraph thereof. The Department also believes that an appropriate moment for presenting this second note would be immediately following ratification of the Perso-Soviet Convention by Russia, and before exchange of ratifications has taken place, at which time you are authorized to present the note in question with the change mentioned above.
Very truly yours,