867.24/211
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
The British Ambassador called to see me this afternoon.
The Ambassador said that he had some matters that he would like to take up with me. He said that during the time that I was away from the Department, the Department had informed the British Embassy that it believed that supplies to be made available to Turkey under the provisions of the Lease-Lend Act should be made available directly by the United States and not through Great Britain. The Ambassador brought with him an aide-mémoire, in the nature of a reply of the British Government to this opinion which it attached herewith.1
The Ambassador said he wished to add to what was contained in the aide-mémoire two further considerations which he considered of great importance. First, as this Government knew, Turkey frequently complained that Great Britain had not complied with the terms of her agreement with Turkey by furnishing all of the arms and ammunition [Page 911] which had been stipulated in the original agreement. He said that if the arms and ammunition furnished under Lease-Lend were to be supplied directly to Turkey by the United States, the Turks would have further ground for their contention that Great Britain had not complied with her commitment and that Turkey was receiving this matériel from other sources and consequently at a given moment the danger might be increased by Turkey, maintaining that Great Britain had not complied with her part of the agreement, declaring that she was consequently released from her commitments to Great Britain with respect to Germany. Second, the British High Military Command believes that the best aerial assistance which can be afforded by Great Britain to Turkey lies in the furnishing of British aviation squadrons. The British Government feels that if aviation matériel is made available to Turkey directly by the United States, the Turks will endeavor to expand their own aviation forces to preclude the preponderance of British air squadrons and that consequently there will result very serious interference with British strategy and British aviation plans for the Near East.
I stated to the Ambassador that it seemed to me that these questions merited the very careful consideration of this Government and that the problem would immediately be given further attention.
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