783.003/144
The Minister in Egypt (Fish) to the Secretary of State
[Received January 14, 1937.]
Sir: I have the honor to inform the Department that on Thursday evening, December 10th, at six o’clock I attended a meeting of the Anglo-American Hospital Board at the Residency. Of this organization the High Commissioner is Chairman and the American Minister is the Vice-Chairman.
The meeting consumed only about fifteen minutes and at its conclusion the High Commissioner asked me into his private office.…
Apparently he had detained me primarily to discuss with me what he was doing with reference to safe-guarding the rights of Christian minorities in Egypt. He recalled the informal representations that had been made to him by the Egypt Inter-Mission Council looking to the safe-guarding of the rights of Christian minorities in connection with the treaty between the British and Egyptian Governments. (See my despatch No. 551 of March 10, 1936.)
[Page 28]The High Commissioner stated that his Government looked with favor upon the suggestion that Egypt voluntarily make a declaration similar to that made by Iraq before being admitted to membership in the League. He told me that he had already approached the Minister of Foreign Affairs about the matter and that the Minister agrees fully with him that the Egyptian representatives at Geneva should make such a declaration. It must, however, be borne in mind that the Minister of Foreign Affairs is a Copt, as well as is Makram Ebeid Pasha, the Minister of Finance, whom I regard as the brainiest and most clever member of the Cabinet. The High Commissioner further stated that he was taking the matter up with the Prime Minister but that he was proceeding cautiously for it was a delicate matter about which to approach him.
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Respectfully yours,
[Subsequently, at the Montreux Conference for the Abolition of Capitulations in Egypt, in an exchange of letters dated May 8, 1937, Egypt promised that “freedom of worship shall continue to be assured to all religious institutions of the United States of America on condition that there is no offense against public order or morals.” See Department of State Treaty Series No. 939, page 69.]