391.1164/127: Telegram
The Chargé in Iran ( Engert ) to the Secretary of State
[Received 12:44 p.m.]
54. I have on several occasions told the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister93a that the representatives of the Mission Board who have already spent 4½ months here are very much disappointed that their negotiations have not made much headway. I told them the principal difficulty seemed to be that the Iranian authorities maintained the original cost of the properties should form the basis of settlement while the Board naturally insisted that present market values should be the starting point. I said I feared that unless an equitable agreement were reached in the near future the negotiations were in great danger of breaking down altogether, leaving the entire problem in a most unsatisfactory state.
I believe the time has come when the Legation should address a formal note to the Foreign Office embodying the substance of the above remarks together with any statements the Department may wish to add with special reference to the valuation of the properties.
- Dr. Matine-Daftary and Mouzaffar Aalam, respectively.↩