811.20 Defense (M) Turkey/117: Telegram
The Chargé in Turkey (Kelley) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 27—7:42 a.m.]
1067. My 1046, October 21. Minister for Foreign Affairs sent for British Ambassador on Saturday to hand him a written reply to [Page 766] aide-mémoire which Ambassador left with him on October 20, setting forth, under instructions from London, point of view of British Government relative to certain aspects of Turkish attitude in chrome negotiations. Turkish reply vigorously denies accusations (1) that changes which had been made (at request of Turkish Minister of National Defense) in list of war material to be supplied by Germany under Clodius agreement were designed to facilitate delivery of 135,000 tons of chrome to Germany and consequently violated directly Turkish assurances to Britain and (2) that promises had been given to British Ambassador in connection with negotiation of 100,000,000 mark credit agreement with Germany, which had been broken. Numan said that he would like to have no record kept and or words exchanged and suggested that Hugessen withdraw his aide-mémoire and he would take back his. Hugessen said that he could not do that without consulting London.
Numan went on to say that German Ambassador81 had called on him Friday with regard to delivery of chrome to Germany. Von Papen had asked for unconditional delivery of first 45,000 tons which Numan had refused. Von Papen accepted Numan’s contention that second agreement stipulated in Clodius agreement could not be concluded until entire 18,000,000 Turk pounds of war material had been delivered. Von Papen complained that Numan had told British that Germany had delivered only 7,000,000 Turk pounds of goods on Schedule of I–a whereas they had actually delivered 12,000,000 Turk pounds. Numan told Hugessen that 12,000,000 Turk pounds was as a matter of fact correct figure. Numan then inquired of von Papen with regard to delivery of the 18,000,000 Turk pounds of war material none of which had as yet been delivered and von Papen declared that German Government would deliver entire 18,000,000 before March 31, 1943. With regard to remainder of goods specified in Schedule I–a, von Papen intimated that he did not think that Germany would be about [able?] to deliver entire amount. Numan told Hugessen that he counted on total deliveries falling far short of 55,000,000 Turkish pounds. He said that if German deliveries fell short by 40%, Turkish deliveries, including chrome, would be proportionately reduced. He said that difficulties had arisen in connection with prices of goods to be delivered by Turkey because Turkish prices had risen recently to such an extent that they exceeded prices fixed in price agreement of last June. Some agreement would have to be made about this.
With regard to question of pari passu treatment for British, Numan said that situation was not encouraging in view of drop in output. Etibank had informed him that it would not be possible to deliver [Page 767] 45,000 tons of chrome to Germany between January 8 and March 31, 1943, and that total production in 1943 would be low. In course of discussion of further agreement for delivery of 135,000 tons of chrome to Germany, Numan pointed out that condition 3 of letter of October 9 (enclosure 11 Embassy’s 179382) provided for delivery by Turkey of chrome to Germany before receiving goods from Germany. This was Numan’s interpretation of “dès lors”. However, Numan declared that while Turkey would deliver a first consignment at once further deliveries would be dependent on arrival of German goods.
Hugessen is now awaiting written reply to his letter of October 5 to Prime Minister which Numan has promised to expedite.