867.24/192
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Chief of the Division of Near Eastern Affairs (Murray)
With the approval of the Secretary, I this morning conveyed to the Turkish Ambassador the information that in matters of lend-lease aid to Turkey we contemplate in the future dealing direct with the Turkish authorities and not, as in the past, through the British.
The Ambassador expressed his sincere appreciation for the Department’s attitude in this matter and added that some short time ago representatives of his Embassy dealing with arms purchases in the United States had been informed he thought by an official of O. P. M.,97 to the same effect. His representative had, however, at the same time been advised that the Embassy would be furnished shortly with a detailed statement of procedure for direct lend-lease aid to Turkey. This communication has never yet arrived and for that reason the Ambassador presumed that no new procedure was as yet in operation.
The Ambassador then said he wished to speak to me as a personal friend and not as an official about the matter of lend-lease aid to Turkey. He said that personally, in view of a variety of circumstances, he had been extremely reluctant to be put in a position of requesting any aid from this country which Turkey was not in a position to pay for. He said he still entertained the same feeling. As far as he was concerned, and he felt sure that his Government and people felt the same, he would rather see his country purchase all available military supplies as far as the resources of the country permitted and after that to fight, if need be, with sticks and stones, or hatchets, or even bare hands, against any invader.
[Page 907]As for the granting of lend-lease aid through the British, the Ambassador said he had thought the matter over since he had received the above-mentioned word from O. P. M. and had been somewhat inclined to the view that it was more logical for such aid to come to Turkey through the British since the British were bound by a treaty to furnish Turkey with all necessary military supplies, whereas we had no such obligation. He had furthermore felt that it might be preferable not to be put in the position of having to ask for assistance direct from this Government and suffer a rebuff which the British could not afford to administer to Turkey because of her alliance with that country and her treaty obligations to it. I made no comment on this reasoning of the Ambassador but merely said that we thought it advisable to proceed along a different line in the future in lending assistance to Turkey and that we contemplated dealing direct with her in all such matters.
- Office of Production Management.↩