611.6731/196: Telegram
The Ambassador in Turkey (MacMurray) to the Secretary of State
Istanbul, May 8, 1937—5
p.m.
[Received May 8—2:20 p.m.]
[Received May 8—2:20 p.m.]
18. Your telegram No. 29, May 6, noon.
- 1.
- The note reported in my telegram 17 was couched only in general terms. I do not anticipate that the Turkish Government intends to propose anything more concrete until assured of our readiness in principle to negotiate in the near future. I therefore request authorization to advise the Foreign Office that we are prepared to give early consideration to any concrete proposals offered.
- 2.
- Unprepared for the delay of the Turkish Government in communicating the proposal first broached last November, Minister of Economy is now anxious to expedite negotiations with a view to the conclusion of an arrangement by September if possible. He would apparently be willing to send a delegation to Washington.
- 3.
- I learn that this desire for haste has even raised the question of denouncing our existing commercial treaty3 in order to expedite new negotiations. I suggest the advisability of meeting this desire so far as possible if only in anticipation of the less favorable treatment likely to be accorded to our exports in case present trade tendencies progress so far as to bring about a so-called favorable American balance of trade.
- 4.
- Conversations which the Commercial Attaché has had with interested Turkish officials indicate that they contemplate asking tariff reductions on carpets (so specified as to include only Turkish products), wool, mohair, filberts, figs, and raisins and in return would offer reductions on machinery, automobiles, and radios and would consider reductions in a wider range of our products.
MacMurray
- Treaty of Commerce and Navigation, signed at angora, October 1, 1929; Foreign Relations, 1929, vol. iii, p. 838.↩