Office of the Historian

340. Memorandum of Conversation0

Washington, May 29, 1959.

SUBJECT

  • Message from Turkish Prime Minister re Counterpart

PARTICIPANTS

  • Ali S. H. Urguplu, Turkish Ambassador
  • Douglas Dillon, Acting Secretary
  • William M. Rountree, Assistant Secretary, NEA
  • G. E. Robert Meyer, ED
  • Owen T. Jones, GTI

The Ambassador explained that he was calling to deliver a message that the Prime Minister had asked Mr. Zorlu1 to deliver the day before. Because of Mr. Dillon’s unavailability, Mr. Zorlu had discussed the matter generally with Mr. Rountree on the telephone and then, prior to his departure, had asked the Ambassador to deliver it personally to the Acting Secretary.

[Page 806]

The substance of the message, according to the Ambassador, was that Turkey would like to have released as soon as possible half of the counterpart for the financing of State Enterprise investment. The Ambassador stressed the urgency of this need because of the various pressures being felt on the Turkish economy in the course of the implementation of the stabilization program. The Ambassador expressed the hope that Mr. Dillon would be able to respond favorably and as soon as possible to this request.

Mr. Dillon recalled his March 5 letter to Mr. Zorlu,2 as well as the April 1 luncheon with Zorlu at the time of the NATO meeting3 and repeated what he had said to Zorlu on that occasion, i.e., in order for the United States to take any action with respect to the release of counterpart it would be necessary for us to obtain a fuller picture of Turkey’s overall financial resources and requirements, including the investment program of the State Enterprises. After expressing satisfaction on the reports that appropriate material bearing on this problem was now under active preparation by the Turkish Government and would be forthcoming shortly, Mr. Dillon said it might be possible after having preliminary review of this data to make some partial releases of counterpart to help Turkey cope with the pressing needs now facing her.

The Ambassador thanked Mr. Dillon for his comments and indicated that Mr. Dillon’s suggestion was a reasonable one. Indeed, he said, following Zorlu’s telephone conversation with Mr. Rountree on May 28 he had called the Prime Minister stressing the urgency of getting before us appropriate material that would provide a basis for our being helpful on the counterpart release problem.

  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 782.5–MSP/5–2959. Confidential. Drafted by Owen Jones.↩
  2. Zorlu was in Washington for the funeral of former Secretary of State Dulles on May 27.↩
  3. See Document 332.↩
  4. The memorandum of their conversation is in Department of State, Conference Files: Lot 64 D 560, CF 1235.↩