891.5018/36: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in Iran ( Ford )
244. Your 266, April 15. You may inform Millspaugh and any other Iranian officials that this Government will give, as it has in past instances, its earnest and sympathetic consideration to Iranian requests for grain should a serious shortage develop. However Department does not feel justified, on basis of evidence at hand, in supporting Millspaugh’s suggestion for immediate shipment of 10,000 tons of grain or for an allied guarantee along lines of 1942 Anglo-American-Iranian wheat agreement. This view is based on probability of a sizeable carryover of Iranian grain into next crop year, lack of indications [Page 328] of a crop failure in mid-1944, heavy demands on allies for cereals for other areas, and continuing tight shipping situation. Please follow grain situation closely in consultation with MESC and your British colleague, reporting especially on prospects for coming crop and on deliveries of this year’s harvest surplus from northern provinces.
Department agrees that it is essential, in order to avoid necessity for importation of foreign grain into Iran during next crop year, to obtain Soviet cooperation in collection and transportation of surplus cereals from northern Iran. A paraphrase of your telegram has been sent to Mr. Murray in London for use in discussing this phase of problem with British.
Repeated to Cairo for Landis, and to Moscow.