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the information contained in this document, it would not now be possible for the United States to extend full recognition to the Republic of Syria.

After reading the aide-mémoire I told Mr. Barclay that it appeared to contain no information which we had not received from other sources and that practically all of this information had been available at the time the decision had been reached that it was impossible for us to extend recognition to Syria. I added, furthermore, that since the time when the telegram had been drafted in the Foreign Office, upon which this aide-mémoire was based, we had issued our statement expressing our position in favor of Syrian independence, and that consequently the considerations which the Foreign Office put forward seemed to me no longer to hold good. I added that what information we had indicated that the Syrians and Lebanese were completely satisfied with the official statement which had been issued by the Department and that I could not see that any further action was required at this time. I mentioned in this connection that the President of the Lebanese Republic had recently made a most friendly statement to our Consul General at Beirut and that this had been given to the press. Mr. Barclay said that he was under instructions, nevertheless, to request us to reconsider the whole matter. I told him I thought it was very unlikely that any new decision would be reached since our position had already been decided upon and it seemed that there was no good reason to alter it.

Mr. Barclay then inquired whether Mr. Bullitt 72 would consider this question during his present trip to the Near East. I told him that Mr. Bullitt might possibly visit Syria, that he was of course free to discuss any matters that came up, and I assumed that if he had any views on the question he would pass them along in due course.

73 William C. Bullitt, former Ambassador to France.

TURKEY

INTEREST OF THE UNITED STATES IN CONTINUANCE OF ANGLOTURKISH COOPERATION AND CONCERN REGARDING TURKISH RELATIONS WITH GERMANY; EXTENSION OF LEND-LEASE AID TO TURKEY1

740.0011 European War 1939/7608: Telegram

The Ambassador in Turkey (MacMurray) to the Secretary of State

ANKARA, January 14, 1941-7 p. m. [Received January 14-4: 58 p. m.]

10. The Embassy has learned from a most authoritative source that the purpose of the visit of Lieutenant General Cornwall, Deputy Chief of Staff of the British forces in the Near East, and Air Vice Marshal Elmhurst (formerly British Air Attaché in Ankara) who arrived here Monday is to revise in the light of France's capitulation the plans for military cooperation under the Tripartite Treaty 2 which had been drawn up prior to the collapse of France and which have not been modified since that event.

The Embassy is convinced that there is no basis for the report understood to be in circulation to the effect that the object of the visit of this delegation is to induce Turkey to take an active part in the

war.

Inform War Department.

740.0011 European War 1939/7899: Telegram

MACMURRAY

The Ambassador in Turkey (MacMurray) to the Secretary of State

ANKARA, January 24, 1941-5 p. m. [Received January 25-8: 12 a. m.]

17. For the Secretary and Under Secretary only. Both Turkish and British informants assured me that the military consultations reported in my No. 103 are proceeding very satisfactorily.

I have reason to believe that the Turkish Government has made clear its intention to fight in any of the following eventualities: first,

See also correspondence regarding efforts of the American and British Governments to acquire Turkish chrome and to prevent its sale by Turkey to Germany, pp. 936 ff.

2

Anglo-French-Turkish Treaty of Mutual Assistance, signed at Ankara, October 19, 1939, League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. cc, p. 167.

8

& Supra.

814

an attack upon its own territory from any quarter; second, a Bulgarian attack on Greece; third, a German advance into Bulgaria; and fourth, an Axis advance threatening seizure of Saloniki. There appears to have been no decision yet reached as to the case of a German advance through Yugoslavia not directly menacing Saloniki.

The Foreign Minister today reaffirmed to me his confident conviction that Bulgaria will not, at any rate willingly, allow the passage of German [troops?] through her territory.

MACMURRAY

740.0011 European War 1939/8231b: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Turkey (MacMurray)

WASHINGTON, February 9, 1941-8 p. m.

12. In view of recent discussions of this Government's position with regard to the developing world situation we desire you to make clear to the Turkish Government just what our position is as outlined below. In a recent statement to the nation the President said "we are planning our own defense with the utmost urgency and in its vast scale we must integrate the war needs of Britain".

5

This continues to be the keystone of American National defense policy and the developing situation has intensified this effort. We are convinced that Britain will win. Production of war material in America has already been undertaken on the vast scale indicated and the providing of facilities to meet British requirements will continue ever increasingly until the final victory. The President has pointed out on several occasions there can be no deviation from this policy as in his own words "we know now that a nation can have peace with the Nazis only at the price of total surrender".

HULL

740.0011 European War 1939/8392b: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Turkey (MacMurray)

WASHINGTON, February 14, 1941-7 p. m.

14. My 12, February 9, 8 p. m. Will you please by direction of the President make occasion to convey the following message to the Prime Minister: 6

"The President at this moment when peaceful nations are seeking a policy to insure their own integrity is convinced that any victory on

Sükrü Saraçoğlu.

Address by President Roosevelt delivered from the White House over a nationwide network, December 29, 1940, Department of State Bulletin, January 4, 1941, p. 3.

Refik Saydam.

behalf of the predatory powers even if it only be in the diplomatic field would but pave the way for fresh demands accompanied by threats of force against the very independence of the nation thus menaced. The President also desires it to be realized that the socalled Lend-Lease Bill now before the Congress and which has been passed by the House of Representatives and by the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate permits in its present form for the President to supply the materials of war to those nations that are now the victims of aggression or which are threatened with aggression."

HULL

740.0011 European War 1939/8408: Telegram

The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt) to the Secretary

7

of State

Moscow, February 15, 1941-4 p. m. [Received February 15-3: 40 p. m.]

287. The Turkish Ambassador 6a told me last night that his Government is now convinced that Germany contemplates an attack on Turkey in the relatively near future. He said there is no doubt that Turkey will resist. Insofar as concerns present relations between the Soviet Union and Turkey, he said that he has had no conversations with the Soviet authorities for some time past on other than the most routine matters and that, insofar as he knew, there had been no political discussions between the Soviet Ambassador at Ankara and his Government. He said that the attitude of the Soviet authorities towards him of late had been correct but nothing more. With respect to rumors, first, that Sobolev and then that Suritz, the former Soviet Ambassador to Paris, had recently been in Sofia with the object of dissuading the Bulgarian Government from succumbing to German pressure, the Ambassador said he had been unable to confirm these rumors and that if the Soviet Government was endeavoring to influence the Bulgarian Government it was doing so most discreetly. The Ambassador expressed the opinion that Germany has been exerting pressure on Japan during the past few days to yield to the Soviet conditions for a Soviet-Japanese political agreement, and in this connection, he remarked that Germany, the Soviet Union, China, and Great Britain each for reasons, which he said were obvious, are desirous of seeing war between the United States and Japan.

6a Ali Haydar Aktay.

7

STEINHARDT

A. A. Sobolev, General Secretary of the Soviet Commissariat for Foreign Affairs.

740.0011 European War 1939/8415: Telegram

The Ambassador in Turkey (MacMurray) to the Secretary of State

ANKARA, February 16, 1941-5 p. m.

31. For the Secretary and Under Secretary.

8

[Received 7: 15 p. m.]

1. I now learn that almost simultaneously with my sending my telegram No. 30 yesterday the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, to its great surprise, received word that the Bulgarian Government would accept a formula which the Turkish Government had submitted. On that basis an agreement is to be signed tomorrow and published probably the following day which provides, subject to the stipulation that it is without prejudice to the contractual obligations of the several parties, for: (a) mutual nonaggression; (b) cultivation of neighborly relations; (c) intensification of commercial exchanges; and (d) restraint (by implication) upon the tone of the press.

2. Although I understand the Turks consider that the text fully safeguards their position under the Balkan Entente Agreemento and their treaty of alliance with Great Britain 10 there would seem to be reason to apprehend that enemy propaganda may at least plausibly misrepresent Turkey's participation in such an agreement as an acquiescence in the fait accompli of German military penetration of Bulgaria and even in the purposes thereof.

MACMURRAY

740.0011 European War 1939/8465: Telegram

The Ambassador in Turkey (MacMurray) to the Secretary of State

ANKARA, February 18, 1941-4 p. m. [Received 9:25 p. m.]

33. The declaration referred to in my 31, February 16, 5 p. m., was signed here yesterday and released for publication abroad after midnight. I shall not telegraph the text unless so instructed.

The Foreign Minister was quoted as saying after the signature that the modest document which had just been signed would perhaps be susceptible of preventing new complications in the Balkans. MACMURRAY

8 Not printed.

9

Signed at Athens, February 9, 1934, by Greece, Rumania, Turkey, and Yugoslavia; League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. CLIII, p. 153.

10

Signed May 12, 1939; Parliamentary Debates, House of Commons, 5th series, vol. 347, col. 952.

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