740.0011 European War 1939/8488: Telegram
The Consul General at Beirut (Engert) to the Secretary of State
[Received 2:53 p.m.]
42. A person close to the High Commissioner has just told me that the news of the Turco-Bulgarian accord45 has had a most depressing [Page 688] effect here. It is interpreted as a successful German diplomatic prelude to military action which virtually deprives Great Britain and Greece of effective Turkish support when and where they might need it most. It has given fresh impetus to the belief long current in Syrian and Lebanese circles that Turkey’s so-called alliance with Great Britain46 was nothing but a hollow sham which the Turks merely exploited in order to be able to annex the Hatay.47 There is also the firm belief in French circles that Soviet diplomacy is at least as tricky as Hitler’s and that consequently Turkey’s freedom of action will always be paralyzed by the necessity of placating Moscow.
- Turkish-Bulgarian declaration, signed at Ankara, February 17, 1941, reaffirming policies of non-aggression; for text, see Martens, Nouveau recueil général de traités, 3e sér., tome 39 (Leipzig, 1941), p. 357.↩
- Treaty of Mutual Assistance, signed at Ankara, October 19, 1939, League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. cc, p. 167.↩
- For correspondence on this subject, see Foreign Relations, 1939, vol. iv, pp. 832 ff.↩