891.24/165

Memorandum of Telephone Conservation, by the Chief of the Division of Controls (Green)

The Iranian Minister8 called me by telephone half a dozen times the day before yesterday requesting Urgently that arrangements be [Page 356] made to permit the departure by the SS Utahan, scheduled to leave New York yesterday, of the machine guns referred to in my memorandum of January 2.9

Pursuant to the Secretary’s oral instructions that nothing should be done at this time to permit the shipment by American vessels of the arms mentioned in my memorandum of January 2, I called the Iranian Minister by telephone this morning and told him that his request had been given the most careful consideration but that, in view of the provisions of Section 2 (a) of the Neutrality Act,10 it had not been found possible to grant his request.

The Minister expressed great disappointment. He said that he was particularly distressed because if Section 2 (a) of the Neutrality Act were interpreted to prevent shipments of arms by American vessels to a neutral port via a belligerent port, his Government would not be able to obtain the airplanes which it had recently purchased in this country. He argued at some length that we were misinterpreting Section 2 (a) of the Neutrality Act.

I told the Minister that there seemed to be some room for alternative interpretations of Section 2 (a) but that the interpretation which we had been constrained to adopt prevented us from complying with his request. I suggested that he should investigate the possibility of shipping arms to Basra by neutral or belligerent vessels.

The Minister said that he would adopt my suggestion but that his Government had already investigated the matter and that as far as he knew the only vessels sailing from American ports to Basra were American vessels following the Atlantic route and touching at Capetown and American vessels following the Pacific route and touching at Bombay.

Joseph C. Green
  1. Mohammed Schayesteh.
  2. Not found in Department files.
  3. 54 Stat. 4. Section 2 (a) reads: “Whenever the President shall have issued a proclamation under the authority of section 1 (a) it shall thereafter be unlawful for any American vessel to carry any passengers or any articles or materials to any state named in such proclamation.”