124.90H/30: Telegram
The Chargé in Iran (Engert) to the Secretary of State
[Received 1:15 p.m.]
50. During calls exchanged with the Afghan Minister of Foreign Affairs Faizy Mohammed, who is spending some 10 days in Teheran in connection with the four-power pact,11 he repeatedly spoke of the sincere desire of the Afghan Government to cultivate friendliest possible relations with the United States. The Department will recall that he was a member of the Afghan Mission to Washington in 192112 and although he laughingly refers to several misunderstandings which occurred on that occasion he says that he never forgot the tremendous impression America made on him. He felt then and still feels that the world could learn much from us especially as regards international [Page 607] conduct and he hoped his country would also be able to profit from our great experience in technical matters. It was in this spirit that the recent agreement had been made with an American company.
But he added in order to make intercourse between Afghanistan and the United States really fruitful it was absolutely essential that we open a legation at Kabul in which case he would at once establish one in Washington. He therefore requested me most earnestly to reiterate to the Secretary of State his desire that consideration be given to the matter in the near future. He begged me to make it clear that the question of prestige did not enter into it but that it had become one of sheer necessity. Almost every day some problem affecting American business or travelers presented itself and he did not wish to see our interests prejudiced but he often found it difficult to make a fair decision without being able to consult with an American representative.
- The Saadabad Treaty signed July 8, 1937, by Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Turkey; for text, see League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. cxc, p. 21.↩
- See Foreign Relations, 1921, vol. i, pp. 258 ff.↩