868.014/9–944
The Ambassador to the Greek Government in Exile (MacVeagh) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 18.]
Sir: I have the honor to enclose, as of probable interest to the Department, a translation of a memorandum regarding Greek territorial claims69 together with a map70 showing a proposed northern boundary for Greece. The originals of both were prepared in the Greek Foreign Office; the memorandum was written by Mr. Philip Dragoumis, Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, while the map was made by officials of his Ministry. The translation was made in the office of the Embassy’s Military Attaché, which also furnished the map from which the enclosed was copied.
Mr. Dragoumis has divided his memorandum into three parts:
First, he argues for the northward revision of the frontiers toward Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Albania, as indicated on the map, on the grounds that security demands that Greece control the main passes leading from these countries toward the south. He claims that the territory is “relatively small”, is mountainous and that the population is “of doubtful nationality”. Second, he urges Greece’s claims, on ethnic and historical grounds, to Northern Epirus, the Dodecanese and Cyprus. With regard to the two former he lists the relevant international treaties and agreements from the time of the Balkan wars to the present, but in connection with Cyprus he states only that it is a matter to be settled between Greece and Britain. Finally he pleads the impossibility of Greece’s economic restoration except with Allied help in a world where the economic interdependence of nations is recognized; and he concludes with the suggestion that Greece’s population problem might be solved by facilitating immigration to other Near Eastern areas, particularly Cyrenaica.
I am informed that these documents have not been submitted to the Greek Cabinet for its approval and are not to be regarded as necessarily representing the official point of view of the Government. They express simply what officials of the Greek Foreign Office feel the Government should demand at the time of postwar settlements.
Respectfully yours,
- Not printed; substantially the same proposals were embodied in memoranda dated June 12, 1942, handed by the Greek King (George II) to President Roosevelt and by the Greek Prime Minister (Tsouderos) to the Secretary of State (Hull) during King George’s visit to the United States in the summer of 1942; see Foreign Relations, 1942, vol. ii, bracketed note on p. 797, and p. 822.↩
- Not reproduced.↩