740.0011 European War 1939/14729: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 5—5:40 p.m.]
4102. [Your] 3563 September 4, 2 p.m., has been taken up with Sir Horace Seymour30 at the Foreign Office and has been brought to Mr. Eden’s personal attention. Seymour has promised a reply as soon as possible. Seymour said that Sir R. Bullard had been instructed to keep Mr. Dreyfus fully informed of all negotiations and moves at Tehran. He said that they are faced with a serious practical difficulty at the moment as those Germans whom they particularly desire to get out of Iran have taken refuge in the German city and country Legations—about 700 altogether. The Shah is endeavoring to force their [Page 451] consent for the return of these Germans to Germany. The British on the other hand are determined to decide themselves which ones may be allowed to return to Germany and Seymour says that there are some of them whom they would not under any circumstances permit to return.
Mr. Eden in a speech at Coventry last Saturday in which he made a general survey of the present war position reinforced the statement he had previously given out (my 3916, August 2731) regarding British action in Iran. He said “meanwhile let me make plain once again our general attitude. We have no territorial claims against Iran. We covet no square inch of Iranian territory. We have no design nor have our Russian allies any design to annex any part of the areas which our forces have now occupied. His Majesty’s Government and the Soviet Government have repeatedly assured the Iranian Government of their determination to respect the political independence and the territorial integrity of Iran. We have repeated that pledge to the Government of our ally Turkey and to the Governments of neighboring states. That pledge stands. We shall as soon as military conditions permit withdraw our forces from Iranian territory.”
Full text of this speech has been forwarded by air mail.31