You will note this report contains in addition to information on the
points you raised background and general material. It does contain,
[Page 930]
however, everything
which you asked for, and as this complete report was available I
felt that sending it to you in this form would be the best answer to
your inquiry.
[Enclosure]
Report on Turkey by Mr. Ray A. Graham, Jr.,
Liaison Officer, Office of Lend-Lease Administration
[Washington,] November 27,
1941.
I. On March 23, 1941, the President, in a letter to the Secretary
of War, found that the defense of the Turkish Government was
vital to the defense of the United States, and authorized him to
transfer 50 155 mm howitzers and 18,500 round of ammunition for
these howitzers to the Government of Turkey.… Up until this time
Turkey had been procuring defense items in the United States
through the President’s Liaison Committee on PNR’s15 and
letter clearances. (See Table I.)16
II. Since March 23, the British have submitted various
requisitions for retransfer to the Turks as it was decided that
this would be the most expeditious way of rendering the Turks
aid under Lend-Lease, since the British controlled most of the
facilities for shipping. These requisitions, together with their
value and disposition are shown in Table II, attached. This
table should by no means be interpreted as being the full
requirements of the Turks. In fact, it does not represent their
most urgent requirements which are antitank guns, anti-aircraft
guns, planes, tanks and trucks.
The British have a requisition no. 3943, which calls for 700
trucks. We have been trying to move this for three months with
little success.
Their requisitions of note are the ones for raw materials, which
are to go into Turkish arsenals for the making up of high
explosive shells. The reason for this is that the Turks’
artillery is a mixture of German, Austrian and French guns.
These bastard types are of nonstandard United States sizes,
hence the need for raw materials to make their own shells and
ammunition. Their total requirements and defense programs have
been submitted to the Lend-Lease Administration and were
forwarded to SPAB16a by Mr.
Stettinius.
III. When I was assigned the Turkish problem about September 1,
the only material the Turks had received on British requisitions
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were the
howitzers, ammunition, and 10 trucks. 200 of these trucks were
shipped in June, and according to the British, the remaining 190
are still in transit.
The background of the delay on these retransfer requisitions to
Turkey submitted by the British stems back to the latter part of
June when the War Department at an informal request of the
British Purchasing Commission put all these requests on the
shelf. Later on the State Department ran into this situation
when they were trying to gain some concessions from the Turkish
Government. As a result of this, on August 15 they were referred
to Colonel V. D. Taylor, of the Defense Aid Supply Commission,
for action. However, no action was forthcoming because the
British Purchasing Commission again requested the War Department
to defer the financing of these requisitions. In the meantime,
the Allied Requirements Section of the British Supply Council
and the State Department were needling this office to get action
on these requisitions, and the former even specified in
telephonic conversations which ones they wanted moved, saying
that they had urgent cables from London. As a result of these
delays, we initiated the idea of Lend-Leasing aid to Turkey
direct and after getting the green light from Mr. Hopkins on
September 6, we started conferences with the British Supply
Council and the State Department with regard to changing over to
the direct procedure.
IV. In the first meeting held on October 23, in the State
Department, it was brought out that the Turks had obtained more
material through the PNR’s and letter clearances for cash than
they had through retransfer under Lend-Lease from the British.
In spite of these facts, the British would not agree to the
principle of Lend-Lease aid direct by the United States at this
meeting. This conference was very unsatisfactory and it was
decided to hold another one at a later date. Before the second
conference, this office and the State Department met and drew up
a method of effecting retransfer and also a procedure for giving
the Turks Lend-Lease Aid, direct on a cash reimbursement basis.
The reason for keeping the retransfer method through the British
stemmed from a request by Lord Halifax made in the interim to
Secretary Hull, wherein Halifax said it was imperative for the
British to use their Lend-Lease aid for the Turks in order that
they might meet their existing trade treaty with the Turkish
Government. (This means the British are reimbursed by the Turks
for aid given them by the United States.) At this second
meeting, held November 4 in the State Department, all the
principles under-lying a retransfer method for cash and an
effective retransfer method with more United States control were
approved and concurred in by all present, including the British,
who were represented by Mr. Hayter of the Embassy, and Sir Louis
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Beale of the
British Supply Council. (This lays the path for all direct aid
by the United States, if the need arises in the future.)
V. On September 11, the President revoked the former letter of
March 23 and authorized the chairman of the British Supply
Council of North America to transfer the 50 howitzers and
ammunition to Turkey. This amounted to picking up on paper what
had actually been done in practice since the British had,
through their shipping facilities, the only means of sending
material to the Turks. This revocation had a bad effect in that
in order for the Lend-Lease Office to send aid direct to Turkey,
the President had to find again that the defense of Turkey was
vital to the defense of the United States.
VI. On November 7, the President wrote Mr. Stettinius, saying
that the defense of Turkey was vital to the defense of the
United States, and that he should take immediate action to
transfer all feasible material aid to the Turks. On November 20,
Mr. Stettinius signed the procedure for retransfer and direct
aid for cash and forwarded it to the State Department. This
procedure was based on the principles agreed to in the last
meeting in the State Department with the British. The first
things to be transferred to the Turks on a cash reimbursement
basis directly by the United States will be 1000 Ford trucks. We
are getting this on a requisition at the present time.
VII. All actual Turkish purchasing is being done from the Embassy
and the Allied Requirements Section of the British Supply
Council, who are working in collaboration with a Turkish
Technical Mission. This Turkish Mission is composed of two
Turkish military men who were sent over to America at the
request of the British. Until they moved to Washington, a few
weeks ago, the Embassy and this Mission did not seem to be in
close liaison. The Turks have paid in cash for their
transportation and shipping on all purchases made in this
country. They have even paid the British for the shipment and
transportation of the howitzers and trucks which they received
from the British through the medium of Lend-Lease. They have
paid in cash and placed orders under PNE’s and letter clearances
and lately we have had no trouble in getting them priority
ratings that are equal to our own. This is illustrated in Table
I, attached.
VIII. The Turks have a small merchant fleet composed of about 50
ships which operate up and down the coast of the Mediterranean,
the Caspian and the Black Seas. Since the war began they have
been ordered to stick close to Port.
To get material to Turkey from the United States now takes about
90 days because it has to go by way of Cape Horn and then to
Suez. Perhaps in the future this shipping can be speeded up
since the Neutrality Act has been repealed and our own ships are
beginning to come off the ways.
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IX. The economy of the Turkish Nation, with a population of
17,000,000 is based primarily upon agriculture, with wheat,
barley and tobacco being the principal products. She has the
largest chrome ore deposit in the world, to say nothing of
copper, iron ore and coal. She has one small airplane factory
which has just been completed with the aid of Curtiss Wright,
where she can assemble everything but the engines for which she
has no factories.* She has one large up-to-date, modern
arsenal which is situated in the hills, hard to get at, outside
of Ankara. There is another small arsenal at Istanbul. Just
before the War started, with the aid of the British, they
completed a steel plant in Karabuk. This plant has a capacity of
200 tons a day. Turkey has two lines of fortifications, one at
the bridge head in Thrace, opposite Bulgaria and the other at
the Caucasus. The Turkish Government is a very small group of
military men, all officers in the last war, who took over the
country in a Nationalist revolution in April, 1920. An intensely
patriotic government, it has effected such various reforms as
unveiling the women and building a very fine broad guage
railway, the length of the country. It has also built a brand
new capital in Ankara, all spic and span, in the middle of an
Asiatic desert. This Government is intensely proud of everything
it has done.
X. The Turks are now interested principally in being allowed to
go on running Turkey without interference. For this purpose it
wants to be on the winning side. It regards all foreign powers,
with the possible exception of the U. S. A., as fundamentally
hostile to Turkish national interests. It thinks the Russians
want the Dardanelles. It was allied with the Germans in the last
war and has no illusions about what it is like to be a small
country in a German run world. It knows that the British are not
greedy for themselves but it is not at all sure that the British
wouldn’t give away part of Turkey in payment of their war debts,
say the Dardanelles to Russia. Adding these factors up the Turks
would a little rather be on our side but, the only essential
thing in their international policy is that they end on the
winning side.
XI. The Turks have a large standing army: 750,000 fully armed,
1,000,000 in reserve. It is tough, trained to hardships, and
there is a fighting tradition behind it. It is led like the
German Army by veterans from the last war, but the Turks have no
air force† to speak of, no tanks,
few anti-tank guns, and not much artillery.
XII. If the Allies are ever going to attack in Europe it would be
important to have Turkey on their side. Since it is the natural
bridge
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head into the
Balkans and then into the heart of Germany, and if that bridge
head remains in friendly hands, there will be at least one place
on the map where the allies can say “here we will be able to
attack”. The other end of Turkey butts up against the Caucasus.
At one end of the Caucasus there are the oil wells of Baku and
at the other end there are already the Germans. In view of this
surely no one can doubt the strategic position and in the words
of the State Department we have already put some chips in and by
raising the ante a little more we have everything to gain and
nothing to lose.
XIII. It is also interesting to note that the Turks have a trade
treaty with the Germans somewhat like the one Russia had. Also
there are 200,000 tons of chrome ore already mined, waiting for
a buyer who can transport it.
