740.0011 European War 1939/15970
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
The British Ambassador47 called to see me this afternoon at his request.
The Ambassador read to me some messages from his Foreign Office concerning the situation in Turkey and the negotiations between the Turkish and German Governments involving the right of Germany to acquire chrome in Turkey. The British Foreign Office again was very anxious that the Turkish agreement with Germany should be played down and that too much pressure should not be brought to bear upon Turkey by either Great Britain or the United States as a result of the agreement Turkey had entered into with Germany. The British Foreign Office again feared that Ambassador MacMurray was adopting too defeatist an attitude and reporting too gloomily to [Page 963] the Department of State regarding the attitude of the Turkish Government.
I said that I was somewhat at a loss to account for this new instance of discord in the implementation of the policies of our two Governments with regard to Turkey. I said that the United States had consistently endeavored to support the British position vis-à-vis Turkey, and that in as much as I knew from my personal friendship for him of the unusual ability of Ambassador MacMurray and of the highly intelligent manner in which he conducted his official business, I felt sure that the American Ambassador in Ankara had carried out the instructions sent to him in accordance with the policy of this Government. I said that what had happened during past months had been that frequently after this Government has communicated its views to the Turkish Government in response to requests from the British Government, the latter had then modified its own position. I said that in the present instance I believed that Ambassador MacMurray was reporting objectively and by no means in an unduly defeatist spirit and that he had done his utmost, as had this Government, to support the British Government in order that the Turkish Government might be dissuaded from giving way to Germany more than was absolutely inevitable under present conditions.
Lord Halifax said that he felt very much the same way.
- Viscount Halifax.↩