767.68119/967
The Ambassador in Turkey (MacMurray) to the Secretary of State
No. 90
Istanbul, July 29, 1936.
[Received August
11.]
Sir: Referring to previous correspondence
regarding the Straits Convention of Lausanne and its recent modification
by the Convention signed at Montreux on July 20th,28 I have the honor
to enclose herewith a memorandum of a conversation which I had on July
25th with Dr. (Tevfik Ruştu) Aras, Turkish Minister for Foreign
Affairs.
What seems to me to appear most significantly from this conversation is
that, despite the impatience and irritation against Great Britain which
the Turkish controlled press was permitted to propagate during the
Conference at Montreux, the present intention of this Government is to
manifest an attitude of complete satisfaction, and indeed of solidarity,
with that of Great Britain. It is not yet fully apparent whether this is
due to the favorable results finally attained at Montreux, or to what
extent it may be induced by a feeling of common cause with Great Britain
with relation to the apprehended pretensions of Italy in the Eastern
Mediterranean.
With respect to certain phases of the latter question, I am reporting by
separate despatch certain comments of Dr. Aras, made in the course
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of the same conversation,
concerning the status of the understanding between Turkey and Great
Britain as to mutual support in contingencies arising out of Article XVI
of the League Covenant.
Respectfully yours,
[Enclosure]
Memorandum by the American Ambassador (MacMurray) of a
Conversation With the Turkish Minister for Foreign Affairs
(Aras), July 25,
1936
Having asked for an appointment in order to present my felicitations
to Dr. Aras, who had returned from Montreux on the 24th, I was one
of a number of Chiefs of Mission whose visits he received on the
afternoon of the 25th, at the Pera Palace Hotel. He was in a very
triumphant mood, and scarcely allowed me to speak my word of
congratulations before bursting forth into jubilations that Turkey
had got from the Conference every substantial thing that she had
wanted—which satisfactory result had been achieved in spite of very
serious difficulties.
Quite in contrast with the attitude of the controlled Turkish press,
which during most of the Conference had been protesting against the
obstructiveness of the British, he emphasized that this happy
outcome was in large degree due to the constant friendly support of
the British Delegation. He was so insistent on this point as even to
convey the impression that there might well have been a rift which
he was now zealously trying to repair.
Without specifically blaming either France or Russia, he enlarged
upon the difficult situation created for Turkey by their insistence
upon keeping the Straits open for the uses of the Franco-Soviet
combination while closing them to the naval forces of other Powers.
Turkey, he said, could never have accepted such a situation, in
which she would have been compelled to compromise her neutrality as
guardian of the Straits. Happily, a way out of the impasse had been
found by the formula that Turkey should allow the passage of naval
forces acting either under mandate of the League or under the terms
of a mutual assistance treaty to which Turkey herself might be a
party. The latter alternative was altogether out of the question, as
Turkey has no present or imaginable intention to become a party to
such a treaty; so the proviso was based upon a condition contrary to
fact and therefore meaningless save as it was acceptable to the
French and Soviet Governments because enabling them to make it
appear to their home constituencies that the Conference had given
them some additional element of security.
Dr. Aras further spoke rather bitterly of the Italian abstention from
the Conference, saying that Italy not only had responded in
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terms favorable in
principle to considering the revision of the Lausanne Convention but
had also accepted the invitation to participate in the Conference on
a given date at Montreux, but had later reconsidered that
acceptance. He protested he was broad-minded enough to consider that
there might be sufficient reasons for Italy’s abstention to explain
it as not actually unfriendly to Turkey, but he could not bring
himself to regard it as a friendly thing to do.
At various points in the course of his rather discursive comments,
Dr. Aras reiterated that the new Convention fully and impartially
preserves the free commercial navigation of the Straits, and indeed
further facilitates it by a slight alleviation of the existing
charges for certain services to navigation.
