711.00111 Unlawful Shipments/209
Memorandum by the Chief of the Office of Arms and Munitions Control (Green)
After consulting Mr. Murray,21 I requested the Turkish Ambassador to call at my office in order that I might give him some information in regard to the recent attempt to export airplane parts to Spain [Page 349] via Canada by means of false representations that they were destined to Turkey. The Ambassador called this morning. I informed him of the essential facts and showed him photostatic copies of the documents by which the purchaser had attempted to establish the bona fides of the transaction. I said that copies of these documents had been transmitted to his Foreign Office and that I understood that his Government now had the case under investigation.
The Ambassador expressed great interest in what I had told him. He said that he must assume that the documents were forgeries; that he considered the case of great importance to his Government; and that he intended to send a despatch to his Foreign Office urging the importance of clearing up the mystery in order that no difficulties might possibly arise in connection with the exportation of the airplanes which his Government has actually purchased in this country.
For his convenience, he asked me to let him have a memorandum summarizing the facts in regard to the case and, if possible, photostatic copies of the documents purporting to establish the fact that the planes were ordered by his Government. In compliance with his request, I sent him informally a memorandum of which a copy is hereto attached.22
The Ambassador said that this case recalled to his mind an incident which had occurred about a year ago. An American, whom he did not name, had called at the Embassy and had asked him to assist, by furnishing the necessary documents, in the exportation of planes to Spain. He said that the proposal made to him was that the planes would be made to appear to have been purchased by his Government and that an agent in Istanbul would assist in carrying out the deception. The planes would, however, in fact be diverted to some port of Loyalist Spain as soon as they entered the Mediterranean. The Ambassador said that he had indignantly spurned the proposal.