751.67/253: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Bullitt) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 26—5:30 p.m.]
831. We discussed with Lagarde this afternoon the substance of Ankara’s telegram No. 61, April 25, noon. Lagarde confirmed the application of the Turkish tariff to the Hatay but explained that the action had been taken by the Hatay authorities on their own responsibility. Such action, he said, had been made possible by the de facto independence in customs matters which the Hatay had gained as a result of the position taken by the Damascus authorities last September that they did not wish to have their customs problem complicated by having to take into consideration the special views of the Hatay.
[Page 838]Lagarde explained that it is only a matter of time until the Hatay becomes part of Turkey. He said that last October the Turks had requested the cession of the Hatay and had offered certain compensation which included general cooperation with French policy in the Near East.
The question of such cooperation is quite naturally now being considered in connection with the Franco-British negotiations with Turkey which look to some form of assistance. Lagarde added that Massigli7 will probably be authorized within the next 3 or 4 days to commence separate negotiations with Turkey on the subject of the Hatay. This would seem to imply that Lagarde expects that the mutual assistance negotiations with Turkey will be successfully concluded very shortly.
Lagarde also informed us that the main outlines of a new French proposal for a settlement of the Syrian problem were adopted by the Foreign Office this morning. He said that the proposal would follow the lines of the 1936 treaty8 except in so far as the status of the “peripheral” states, the French military establishments in Syria and the minorities in Syria are concerned. He added that as the third point covers the relationship between the Moslem and Christian communities it is obvious that the negotiations will be difficult.
Copies to Ankara, Beirut.
- René Massigli, French Ambassador in Turkey.↩
- Franco-Syrian Treaty of Friendship and Alliance, signed at Damascus, December 22, 1936, but not ratified by France. For text, see France, Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, Rapport a la Société des Nations sur la situation de la Syrie et du Liban (Année 1936), p. 201.↩