740.00/1107: Telegram

The Chargé in Iran (Engert) to the Secretary of State

40. Legation’s 39, April 21, 4 p.m.35 Minister for Foreign Affairs told me last night “The President’s message has made a very favorable impression here.”36

Not for quotation he added that in return for a durable peace many nations would doubtless be glad to make substantial concessions but the incentive must be something higher than even patriotism. To his question whether the President’s telegram did not mean an important departure from our traditional policy, I said I did not think so as we had pretty consistently held the views I summarized in paragraph 7 of my 25, March 23, 9 a.m.35 I said we disliked all sword rattling intensely and the convulsions which are shaking Europe and the Far East could not leave us indifferent, in the first place because [Page 154] they threatened to disrupt all our normal economic connections but especially because the American people would never accept military pressure as a substitute for diplomacy.

Engert
  1. Not printed.
  2. In telegram No. 49, May 4, 9 a.m., the Chargé in Iran reported that the Afghan Minister for Foreign Affairs on a visit to Tehran had also expressed a favorable opinion of President Roosevelt’s message (740.00/1336).
  3. Not printed.