867.24/549
Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, by Mr. George V. Allen of the Division of Near Eastern Affairs
Mr. Erol38 telephoned to say that the Turkish Ambassador here had received a telegram from the Turkish Foreign Office in Ankara stating that Ambassador Steinhardt had informed the Turkish authorities that a draft of a master Lend-Lease agreement between Turkey and the United States was being handed to the Turkish Ambassador in Washington by the State Department. Mr. Erol asked for such explanation as I might be able to give him on the subject, adding that his Embassy had heard nothing regarding the subject.
I said that the Department contemplated proposing the negotiation of a master Lend-Lease agreement between Turkey and the United States and that a draft of such an agreement had in fact been prepared, but that according to my understanding all the necessary initials had not yet been obtained on the draft, and that I was not aware how soon we might be in a position to begin the negotiations.
Mr. Erol asked if the master agreement would be along the lines of the Lend-Lease agreement between the United States and Great Britain. I said that I presumed the Turkish agreement would follow the lines of the British agreement, with necessary changes to take care of the fact that Turkey is a neutral and not one of the United Nations.
Mr. Erol said that the Turkish Ambassador would be relieved to have this explanation, since he was afraid that possibly a draft agreement had been sent to him and had been misplaced.
- Orhan H. Erol, Counselor of the Turkish Embassy.↩