891.00/12–1545: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State
[Received 7:26 p.m.]
13159. Department’s 10474, December 3. Embassy has now received communication from Foreign Office replying to our invitation for comment on Soviet reply of November 29 to American Government’s note on Iran. Only point on which Foreign Office comments is reference in penultimate paragraph of Soviet note to Soviet-Iranian treaty of which Foreign Office assumes correct date to be February 26, 1921 (not 194112 as given in text of translation received here from Moscow and published in Radio Bulletin No. 291) and concerning implications of which Foreign Office makes following observations:
“There is one point in the Soviet reply to which we would like to draw your particular attention and that is the reference to the Soviet-Persian treaty of the 26th February 1921. Article VI of that treaty provides, as you know, that if a third country attempts by means of armed intervention to realize a rapacious policy in the territory of Persia or to turn the territory of Persia into a base for military action against the Soviet Union and if the Persian Government after warning by the Soviet Government shall prove itself to be not strong enough to prevent this danger the Soviet Government shall have the right to take its troops into Persian territory in order to take the necessary military measures in the interests of self defense. The article concludes that when the danger has been removed the Soviet Government promises immediately to withdraw its troops beyond the frontiers of Persia.
“We find it very difficult to see what relevance this clause of the 1921 treaty can have to the question of the withdrawal of Soviet troops in present circumstances. And if it has any relevance then it would appear to justify by implication the retention of Soviet troops not only after the first of January but after the expiry of the treaty period for their withdrawal.”
The Foreign Office apparently overlooking fact that Soviet note had already been made public suggested that “the State Department may care to consider when the text of the Soviet reply has been made public either in Washington or Moscow the desirability of drawing attention to the rather ominous implications of this part of the Soviet reply”.
Sent to Department as 13159, repeated to Moscow as 416, repeated to Tehran as 43.