890D.00/859: Telegram
The Consul General at Beirut (Engert) to the Secretary of State
[Received 1:30 p.m.]
412. My 405, October 8, 5 p.m. I have today received a note from General Catroux dated yesterday in which he acknowledges mine of October 8th. He quotes the sentence from his proclamation of September 27 mentioned in numbered paragraph 3 of my 381, September 28 and states that this provision applies of course to the obligation [Page 793] assumed for the benefit of the United States and “is of a nature to give every reassurance to the American Government.”
He adds that the new regime in Syria will later be supplanted by “a definitive regime to be established by treaty. I can already now give you the assurance that when the negotiations for that treaty take place full account will be taken of the rights conferred upon the United States by the above mentioned convention”, i. e., our treaty of 1924.
He states he informed the Syrian Government of my note. I am giving a copy of his reply to the British.
Repeated to London.