611.9131/116: Telegram
The Chargé in Iran (Engert) to the Secretary of State
[Received 2:44 p.m.]
93. Referring to the second paragraph of my 85, April 24, I have since been informed by the Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs that he has been instructed by the Prime Minister to accelerate discussions. He explained delay by the fact that the draft which I submitted to the Foreign Office in March 1938 had been mislaid by the Ministry of Commerce. Iranian translation has been made but was so bad that he now requested the Legation to make one.
We have had several talks at which a director in the Ministry of Commerce was present. Both Iranian officials felt that in its present form the proposed treaty offered almost insuperable obstacles in view of the clearing agreement with Germany77 and the commercial treaty with Russia. However, the Iranian Government would welcome suggestions as to a possible compromise formula which would enable them to sign a trade agreement with the United States.
Incidentally and to give the Department an idea of the difficulties confronting us both officials asked me very naively why I had not attached schedules I and II mentioned in the first articles!
- Signed at Tehran, January 4, 1939; German text printed in Reichsgesetzblatt, February 22, 1939, p. 120.↩