740.0011 European War 1939/32718: Telegram

The Ambassador in Turkey (Steinhardt) to the Secretary of State

77. Department’s 29, January 11. If as the British authorities believe the Turks gained the impression from the Cairo Conference5 that only Great Britain is pressing for their entry into the war and that a much more lenient attitude is held by the United States, my conversations since then with the Minister for Foreign Affairs6 and numerous other high Turk Government officials must have disabused them of any such impression. Very shortly after our return from Cairo my British colleague expressed concern to me on this same point and it was at his suggestion that I have made it unmistakably clear to Numan on several occasions that my Government hoped the Turk Government would take an active part in collaboration with the British in accelerating the impending victory of the United Nations. In view of the Department’s instructions I shall continue to emphasize to Numan that my Government desires Turkey’s active participation in the war and hopes the Turks will reach a speedy agreement with the British as to the time and condition of Turkey’s entry.

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For the Department’s information I may add that it is not unlikely that any impression the Turks gained at Cairo that Great Britain was pressing them to enter the war and that a much more lenient attitude is held by the United States may have been reinforced by the fact that the negotiations since the meeting in Cairo have been carried on exclusively by the British.

Steinhardt
  1. For correspondence regarding the conference at Cairo, December 4–6, 1943, between President Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Churchill, and the President of the Turkish Republic (Inönü), see Foreign Relations, The Conferences at Cairo and Tehran, 1943, pp. 655 ff.
  2. Numan Menemencioglu.