765.68/274
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Chief of the Division of Near Eastern Affairs (Murray)
The Counselor of the Greek Legation called this morning by appointment and read to me the full text of the attached telegraphic communication, dated August 14, 1940, from the Prime Minister of Greece, stoutly denying the accusations made by the Stefani Agency in Tirana, Albania, regarding the purported killing of an alleged Albanian patriot by Greek emissaries.
Although Mr. Depasta was apparently not instructed to leave any copy of this communication with the Department and hesitated to do so, he nevertheless followed my suggestion and left with me the attached copy for our information.15
It will be noted that in the Greek Prime Minister’s telegram to the Legation in Washington he refers to a conversation which took place yesterday between the Greek Under Secretary and the Italian Minister in Athens, who was called to the Foreign Office to be acquainted with the views of the Greek Government in this matter. It will be noted in particular that Mr. Metaxas states that the Under Secretary “left it to be understood clearly that in the event of an Italian assault (upon Greece) the decision of the Government to oppose any such assault remains firm”.
Mr. Depasta seemed deeply perturbed over the situation in which his country now finds itself and apparently expects that the worst is yet to come.
- Not printed; the telegram stated that the Greek authorities had nothing to do with the murder and that the victim was a criminal at large with convictions for murder, robbery, kidnapping, etc.↩