840.51 Frozen Credits/772: Telegram

The Minister in Rumania (Gunther) to the Secretary of State

655. This morning I had a conference with the Turkish Ambassador,26 his Commercial Attaché and Mr. Edson27 being present.

The statements of the Turkish Commercial Attaché on the technical aspects of the problem may be summarized as follows:

The urgency of Rumania’s need for cotton is genuine; local stocks have been almost exhausted and certain Rumanian mills may be forced to shut down in a few days if fresh imports are not made. Turkish cotton has proved usable in Rumanian textile factories without important changes in the machinery although the textile produced was naturally inferior to the product obtained from Egyptian long staple. “The Iranian Minister last night confirmed to me both of the above points concerning which I had been anxious. He has a number of Armenian nationals who operate textile factories in Rumania.” Recently Rumania has been importing ersatz cellulose thread from Germany in order to keep weaving mills busy.

The Commercial Attaché confirmed the other statements conveyed in my 617, October 17, 9 p.m.28 but added the following modifications:

1.
The sum of eleven million Turkish pounds fixed for the value of cotton to be bought by Rumania and also of oil to be bought by Turkey was not a fixed contractual figure to buy the quantity which each party promised to make available to the other. It now appears probable that Turkish purchases of oil will not be as large as Rumanian purchases of cotton.
2.
At present it seems possible that Rumania will attempt to insist that Turkey pay for oil in Swiss francs instead of dollars.

The Turkish Ambassador stated that the proposed transaction was an entirely legitimate one which had been envisaged since some time. He assured me that the granting of licenses for this cotton would be esteemed a real favor by his Government.

If only as a matter of tactics the granting of some licenses now would appear warranted, i. e., unless perchance we would lief see [Page 787] American companies here completely nationalized. So far I have been able to juggle the deferment of definite decision on this but I could not guarantee being able to do so indefinitely in view of the strength and persistence of the radical wing of the Iron Guard Party. Further, now that we are at last using some of our power our action in this matter, with skillful handling, might even be turned to inure somewhat to the advantage of American interests in Rumania.

Gunther
  1. Bay Suphi Tanriöer.
  2. Andrew W. Edson, Second Secretary of Legation in Rumania.
  3. Not printed.