811.7490F/1–2345: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant)
789. ReEmbs 794, January 23, 2 p.m. Please reply substantially as follows to the Foreign Office’s most recent informal note regarding radio-telegraph communications between Saudi Arabia and the United States.
The Department of State is pleased to learn that Cable and Wireless Ltd. is prepared to establish adequate communications facilities between Dhahran and Bahrein. As you know, the Arabian American Oil Company has, for a number of years, been urgently in need of such facilities and particularly of direct means of communication between [Page 1013] eastern Saudi Arabia and the United States. In order to provide a direct circuit between Dhahran and the United States, it is contemplated that the Saudi Arabian Government would operate its own station constructed on its behalf by an American company, which would be prepared to provide the necessary technical advice and assistance to ensure efficient operation while local personnel is being trained. In connection with operational matters, it may be stated here that we are informed that, from the technical point of view, a station on the mainland is not likely to be subject to greater atmospheric interference than one located in the Bahrein Islands.
As may be recalled, the Saudi Arabian Government has given due notice of intention to modify the existing contract with Cable and Wireless,97 presumably to alter the terms thereof to permit the erection of its own station to establish a direct radio circuit with the United States. The giving of this notice of intention, of course, is strictly in accordance with the terms of the contract.
It is hoped, therefore, that the British Government will entertain no objection to the erection of a Saudi Arabian Government station at Dhahran for the establishment of direct radio communication with the United States. In that event, the American Government, of course, would entertain no objection to the extension of the proposed facilities contemplated by Cable and Wireless between Dhahran and Bahrein to provide communication between Dhahran and the United States via Bahrein.
- For notice of intention by the Saudi Arabian Government to modify the agreement of April 13, 1935, see telegram 348, November 21, 1944, noon, from Jidda, Foreign Relations, 1944, vol. v, p. 768.↩