890D.927/90: Telegram
The Chargé in France (Wilson) to the Secretary of State
[Received January 10—5:35 p.m.]
55. Department’s 22, January 9, 8 p.m. Lagarde5 has promised to send appropriate telegraphic instructions at once to both Ankara and Beirut. He acknowledged full French responsibility for seeing that the contract is fulfilled and said that everything possible “within the limits of amicable negotiation” would be done. He expressed the opinion that juridically the Turks could possibly make a case on the grounds that the Franco-Turkish agreement of 19375a does not make “internal agreements” binding for the new order in the Hatay but added that he did not believe that they would make an issue of the point in this particular instance. He was definitely of the opinion that the matter should be left entirely in the hands of the French authorities, except as circumstances may require some direct contract between the Committee’s representative and the Hatay authorities.