890D.927/59
The Chief of the Division of Near Eastern Affairs ( Murray ) to the Chairman of the Committee for the Excavation of Antioch and Its Vicinity ( Morey )
My Dear Professor Morey: The receipt is acknowledged of your letter of March 7, 1938, referring to your recent conversation with Mr. Alling regarding excavation rights in the Sanjak of Alexandretta.
We are watching carefully the developments in the Sanjak, and will bear particularly in mind the circumstances regarding excavations as indicated in your letter and conversation. Up to the present, however, we have received no information which would lead us to believe that American archaeological interests in the Sanjak are in any way jeopardized.
As you are aware, the Convention of April 4, 1924, between the United States and France, entitled “Rights in Syria and the Lebanon,”37 guarantees to the United States and its citizens the same archaeological rights in those territories as are enjoyed by members of the League of Nations, France included. The mandate, which includes specific guarantees respecting archaeological research, is still operative with regard to the Sanjak and will continue to be so until it is altered or terminated. Should there be any change or termination of the mandate, the United States intends to safeguard the archaeological rights of its citizens in a treaty to be negotiated with Syria. Every effort will be made to include in such an instrument provisions for rights in the Sanjak on the same basis as in the remainder of Syria.
A copy of your letter under acknowledgment is being forwarded to the American Consul at Beirut, with an instruction38 to report any changes which seem likely to occur affecting our archaeological interests [Page 1033] in the Sanjak. The Consul is also being informed that, if occasion arises to warrant any action on his part, he should take any feasible and appropriate steps to protect the American archaeological interests in the Antioch area. If the reports which we expect to receive from the Consul, as a result of the above-mentioned instruction, should throw any additional light on the archaeological situation in the Sanjak, I shall be glad to communicate with you further.
Sincerely yours,
- Foreign Relations, 1924, vol. i, p. 741.↩
- Instruction of March 14, not printed.↩