867.24/163
The British Minister (Hall) to the Assistant Secretary of State (Acheson)
Dear Mr. Acheson: I have discussed with my Ambassador our most interesting talk about Turkey yesterday morning, and have cleared on the telephone with Mr. Wallace Murray the point that you will consider your decision about export licences for Turkey for goods, including arms and munitions, after you have got a satisfactory arrangement about supplies of chrome. The Ambassador welcomed my report that we had agreed together that any overt act of a kind which might arouse Turkish susceptibilities would be avoided by you, although you would gently reduce the status of unique privileges with regard to supply priorities that Turkey has enjoyed.
Lord Halifax asks me to thank you for your help and interest, but to add that H. M. G. attaches very great importance indeed to avoiding any action that might wound the Turks or lead them to believe that British confidence in them is severely shaken. It was this point of view that I tried to expound yesterday morning, and I welcomed your sympathetic understanding of it.
In view of the very great importance that we attach to avoiding any incident, however small, vis-à-vis the Turks in the present delicate state of affairs, I have thought it worth while to give you on paper the upshot of my talk with the Ambassador who, as I think you know, has already expressed this view to Mr. Welles.
Yours sincerely,