891.00/12–644: Telegram
The Ambassador in Iran (Morris) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 8—5:30 p.m.]
909. On December 4 Ambassador Harriman3 and I were received in an audience for a matter of 2 hours by His Majesty Mohammad Reza. Court Minister Hussein Ala4 was present. The atmosphere was very friendly and it was obvious that the Shah was extremely pleased to have Ambassador Harriman visit him. I feel certain he interpreted this visit as a gesture of friendliness on the part of President Roosevelt and appreciates it as such. Ambassador Harriman conveyed the President’s greetings to the Shah and spoke tactfully and forcefully about aspects of Iranian and American relationship. I have no doubt that Mr. Harriman will wish to report himself on this conversation.
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The Shah spoke in a sensible and sincere manner in regard to the problems and needs of his country. In my opinion, which I think Mr. Harriman shares, he showed a very certain grasp of the economic necessities of his country and he also appears to have a very clear picture and a determined attitude in respect of Iran’s political relationships. He pointed out that the country could not be truly democratic, which he desired, until the people had acquired sufficient education to understand the principles of democratic government and be able to form intelligent individual opinion. To arrive at this the Shah desired very strongly to establish free education without the exclusion of private education for those able to afford it. To accomplish this required money which would have to be raised by greater taxation of the easy classes and the acquisition of funds from the increased exploitation of the agricultural and mineral resources of the country which were potentially great. To do this he recognized the necessity of outside help and particularly desired the wholehearted support of the United States in such a program.
Both Mr. Harriman and I explained firm desire of the President and United States Government to assist along these lines and Mr. Harriman made a concise and effective exposition of the difficulties due to the war effort in initiating help on a large scale at the present moment. The Shah expressed his understanding of the situation.…
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[Page 354]The Shah brought forward once again the question of a treaty covering the presence of American troops.5 I took occasion to state with considerable positiveness that the United States desired nothing better than a quick conclusion of an appropriate agreement. I reminded Mr. Ala that I had expressed this view on several occasions to members of the Government and only a few days previously to the new Prime Minister. I then suggested to the Shah that he could do a service in getting his Government to approach us on this matter.
As an interesting sidelight, the Shah said that in conversation with Kavtaradze some time ago the matter of the American troops being here without a formal treaty in contrast to the British and Russians had been touched upon. Kavtaradze had expressed the opinion that the American army here were not troops in the military sense but on the contrary were railway working specialists. The Shah said that while this viewpoint might be held it was nonetheless true that these men are under military discipline and are armed and that they could not be regarded otherwise than as troops. It was the Shah’s disclosure of Kavtaradze’s remark to him cited above which Court Minister Ala later asked me to be particularly discreet about.
I have cited briefly the salient points of the conversation and I think that Ambassador Harriman will also wish to report upon this interview.
Sent to Department, repeated to Moscow as 107, London, Cairo as 356, and Baghdad.