740.0011 European War 1939/14716
Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, by the Acting Chief of the Division of European Affairs (Atherton)
I called Mr. Johnson8 at noon today and informed him I had just come from talking with the Secretary and wanted to point out that our moral support of the British position in Iran was constantly being raised here and, in this connection, of course full information was necessary. To date this had not been received. The Department [Page 434] desires information not only as to factual data from the British but a full statement of their purposes. I then stated the Secretary was seeing the Russian Ambassador9 and the British Chargé d’Affaires10 today and would raise with them the question of their respective Governments issuing a statement to all peaceful nations resisting aggression that while these Governments’ action in Iran was necessary to meet the menace of Hitler across Europe, they had no intention of permanently infringing the sovereignty of Iran and that as soon as the necessity for the occupation had passed their Governments would unconditionally withdraw all occupying forces from Iranian territories. Mr. Johnson replied that some statement in this sense had already been made which he was reporting to us by air mail. I said that, unfortunately, this was not at hand—would he look into it and see that the information was made immediately available together with some light on how far the British had attempted preliminary negotiations with Iran to obtain their cooperation or support under British guarantees, should they throw in their lot with the British and Soviet effort.
I then went on to point out that today, of course, the occupation of Iran was not a purely British affair and this again, without due information, was bound to cause some speculation in this country, particularly since reports were reaching here already of bombings and destruction in and about Tabriz. I then asked Mr. Johnson if the statement issued by the British, to which he referred to above as having been dispatched to us by air mail, did not cover details of any Soviet-British agreement, that we would be very interested in having specific information as to what mutual arrangement or agreement had been made between the British and Soviet Governments not only as to the present but also as to the future of Iran and Iranian integrity. I then continued to stress the importance of this whole situation and that we should be kept informed by London. Johnson said that they would raise the question with the British and that he would report my conversation with him to Ambassador Winant.