Office of the Historian

740.0011 European War 1939/8392b: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Turkey (MacMurray)

Washington, February 14, 1941—7 p.m.

14. My 12, February 9, 8 p.m. Will you please by direction of the President make occasion to convey the following message to the Prime Minister:6

“The President at this moment when peaceful nations are seeking a policy to insure their own integrity is convinced that any victory on [Page 816] behalf of the predatory powers even if it only be in the diplomatic field would but pave the way for fresh demands accompanied by threats of force against the very independence of the nation thus menaced. The President also desires it to be realized that the so-called Lend-Lease Bill now before the Congress and which has been passed by the House of Representatives and by the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate permits in its present form for the President to supply the materials of war to those nations that are now the victims of aggression or which are threatened with aggression.”

Hull
  1. Refik Saydam.↩