891.20/186⅓
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Chief of the Division of Near Eastern Affairs (Alling)
Mr. Hayter27 said that the Foreign Office had instructed the Embassy again to inform the State Department of the importance which the British Government attached to the appointment of an American military mission to Iran.
I told Mr. Hayter that the War Department had recently decided that it could not send a military mission at this time. However, the War Department did propose to send to Iran General Ridley, who would take the place of General Greely. I said that it was our understanding that General Ridley would be instructed to report on the situation and that as a result of that report I thought the War Department might give further consideration to the appointment of an American military mission.
Mr. Hayter said he hoped we could find an opportunity to let the Iranian Minister here know that the British Government had fully supported on more than one occasion the proposal for an American military mission to Iran. He said that if such information could be conveyed to the Iranian Legation it would be helpful to the British [Page 255] in as much as the Iranian Prime Minister apparently was under the impression that such a proposal had met with British opposition. I told Mr. Hayter I would see what could be done.
- W. G. Hayter, First Secretary of the British Embassy.↩