861.24/1743
The Director of the Office of Near Eastern and African Affairs (Murray) to the Assistant Secretary of War (McCloy)40
My Dear Mr. McCloy: It is with a keen sense of appreciation that I acknowledge the receipt of your letter of February 17, 1944, informing me that General Connolly’s directives have been broadened to permit him, within the limits imposed by his primary objective of moving war supplies to Russia, to give assistance to Iran in the form of technical advice, equipment or the loan of men for short periods.
The last paragraph of your letter was especially interesting in revealing the interest the War Department and the Persian Gulf Service Command have taken in the affairs of the Iranian Ministry of War and the vital question of the movement of the wheat harvest. [Page 319] We have also been informed that General Connolly has consented to the loan to the Iranian civil transport board of 27 officers and men for the purpose of assisting our adviser, Mr. Shields, to reorganize the badly disrupted Iranian organization. Actions of this kind, I am sure, will lead to insuring the security of the supply corridor and to the strengthening of our long-range position in Iran.
We have informed the Legation at Tehran of your action and also of General Connolly’s desire that assistance to Iran be granted where possible through General Ridley or Colonel Schwarzkopf. We have also cautioned the Legation against any tendency which might arise on the part of the Iranian authorities or the American advisers to make unwarranted requests for assistance. The criterion, it seems to us, should be to endeavor to help Iran to help herself, avoiding any suggestion that we are willing or in a position to carry out extensive and continuing works with our own men and equipment.
We look forward with assurance to a period of the closest cooperation between the Persian Gulf Service Command on the one hand and our Legation and advisers on the other.
Sincerely yours,
- Copy transmitted to Tehran in Department’s instruction 338, February 26.↩