884.6363 African Exploration and Development Corp./18: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom ( Bingham )
240. At the press conference this morning when asked by correspondents concerning the reported oil concession in Ethiopia and our attitude with regard to it in its relation to the Italian Ethiopian controversy, I replied as follows:
“It has not thus far been possible to secure the full facts relative to the reported oil concession transaction in Ethiopia. The reported concession, as I stated on last Saturday, was made without this Government having in any way been consulted or informed. A sufficient amount of information, however, has since been received to enable me to say definitely that, whatever the nature of this transaction may prove to be, either commercially or politically or both, the attitude and policy of this Government towards the controversy between Italy and Ethiopia will be maintained hereafter just as it would have been maintained had this reported oil transaction not occurred.
[Page 781]“The central point in the policy of this Government in regard to the Italian and Ethiopian controversy is the preservation of peace—to which policy every country throughout the world is committed by one or more treaties—and we earnestly hope that no nations will, in any circumstances, be diverted from this supreme objective.”
Please transmit a copy of my statement to the Foreign Secretary for his information and send copies to the Embassies in Paris and Rome and to the Consulate in Geneva.96
- The Secretary’s statement herein quoted was also transmitted to the Chargé in Ethiopia in Department’s telegram No. 51, September 3, 5 p.m., not printed.↩