883.24/171: Telegram
The Minister in Egypt (Kirk) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 3—2:09 p.m.]
815. Department’s 604, April 30, 7 p.m. Personal for Wallace Murray. As stated in my 799, April 30, 4 p.m., which evidently crossed your telegram, the British here apparently consider “warlike and other stores” to include anything that falls under budget of national defense. While Misr Airwork is administered by Department of Civil Aviation, which was formerly section of Ministry of Communications and now happens to be part of Ministry of National Defense, Misr is still technically a private company and payment for planes in question might not necessarily be made out of National Defense Ministry budget. I therefore feel that to consider the two planes requested by Misr as “warlike and other stores” would be stretching matters and there is no doubt that Egyptians would feel the same way. On the other hand if the specific question were put to the British here they would probably reply that the planes should be considered to fall within that definition.
Misr is still most anxious to obtain the planes and I hope that they will not lose out on some technicality.