888.2553/10–452: Telegram
No. 220
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom
(Gifford) to the
Department of State1
niact
1986. Eyes only Secretary, Byroade and Henderson. FonOff has instructed Middleton assure Henderson in accordance second numbered point para 5 Deptel 2412, Oct 3, rptd Tehran 820 and to concert in delivery fol msg from Eden paralleling that from Secretary:
“Mr. Churchill and I and our colleagues in HM Govt are disappointed to see from your message that our latest proposals for a settlement of the oil dispute should have been misunderstood in so many ways. The fears which you express are without foundation. The proposals in no way fail to recognize Persia’s nationalization of her oil industry or seek to revive the 1933 concession. There was no suggestion that there should be foreign management of the oil industry, still less was this put forward as a condition. We did not contemplate a monopoly of the purchase of oil.
- 3.
- [sic] The proposals suggested an equitable method, not necessarily the only method, of settling all claims and counterclaims of both sides by impartial adjudication. We said nothing about price of oil because that falls to be discussed as between seller and purchaser and not between govts.
- 4.
- I am sending you this message in order that you and your countrymen may know exactly what we had in mind.”
- Repeated to Tehran.↩