740.0011 European War 1939/12241: Telegram
The Ambassador in Turkey (MacMurray) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 19—9:30 p.m.]
198. In a hastily arranged interview with the Minister for Foreign Affairs63 this noon I informed him that I had received from him word of your having learned from a good source of the proposed early signature of a Turco-German nonaggression pact and had been instructed to see him immediately and to say while you were not informed of its terms and would not wish to be understood as implying any judgment as to its implications, you were nevertheless fearful that the signature of such a pact might be misconstrued with disastrous effect by American public opinion as indicating a change in the Turkish policy of solidarity with the British. I, therefore, urged that with this possibility in mind he take every available step to clarify the Turkish position.
- 2.
- Referring further to rough notes he then made in reply a statement along these lines: Turkey is and will remain the ally of Britain and that relationship will be in no way affected by the proposed agreement which is the outcome of conversations initiated by him with the German Ambassador approximately 6 weeks ago with the entire cognizance and acquiescence of the British Government, which has all along been kept fully informed. Most of the discussion had turned upon the Turkish insistence upon the inclusion in the preamble of the agreement of a clause which would adequately safeguard [Page 860] Turkey’s obligations as the ally of Britain. He stated that although this clause was theoretically reciprocal it had in fact no significance as regards anything but Turkey’s treaty with Britain, and that that fact was fully understood between the Turkish and German negotiations. After outlining to me the terms of the agreement he stated that while contributing towards enabling Turkey to stand aloof from the war it did not in any degree detach her from the alliance.
- 3.
- Conceding that the legal aspects of the matter might be adequately safeguarded I insisted that the concern which you felt and which I must endeavor to impress upon him was as to the psychological effects upon American opinion which I repeated might well be disastrous. He said he thought any misconception could be avoided by a mere word explaining that the safeguarding clause effectively preserves the alliance unimpaired. Ignoring his casual remark that it semed to him that it was for our Government to take care of American opinion I endeavored to persuade him that the most authoritative and explicit statement on behalf of his Government seemed necessary. He said he proposed to deal with the matter by calling in tomorrow morning the representative of Reuter and giving him a formal interview which should be sent to the British press and turned over by him to the representatives of the American press. I made this the occasion for asking if I might be frank enough to tell him that it seemed to me that there was a grave danger of the Turkish Government’s alienating American opinion and that it seemed to me most desirable he should make every effort to present the matter in the way that would be most convincing and acceptable to the American press: if he chose to give his statement in the form of a press announcement rather than a more formal official declaration in the name of his Government, he should at least give such an announcement to the American press representative here. Despite my insistence that he receive all of them for the purpose I could get him to go no further than say that he would favorably consider talking with some selected correspondent on behalf of the American journalists.
- 4.
- In a further endeavor to bring home to him the importance of the matter from the standpoint of American opinion, I recalled that the administration had already been subjected to widespread and severe criticism for having dissipated its material assistance among various countries more or less aloof from the conflict instead of concentrating its entire efforts upon furnishing to the British everything that could be spared from our own needs; and I asked him to realize the difficulties which would be created for our lend-lease policy if the opinion were to become current that Turkey had lost interest in the struggle [Page 861] for the purpose of which we were supplying materials to her. He retorted that no American materials had in fact been furnished; on the basis of such information as I have had from you I assured him that he was mistaken as you had informed me that large quantities of materials were already on their way; he dismissed the particular question with the incredulous remark that at any rate he had no knowledge of anything having been delivered as yet.
- 5.
- At the conclusion of our conversation he remarked that the situation naturally appeared very differently to Americans thousands of miles away and to Turks who hoped to be spared at least as long as possible from the war which they had already seen ruin other small nations on their very borders.
Repeated to Bucharest, Moscow.
- Sükrü Saraçoğlu.↩