867.24/7–545

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

No. 55

Sir: Referring to the Embassy’s telegrams no. 542, April 21, and no. 594, May 2, and to the Department’s telegram no. 562, May 26, 1945, I have the honor to enclose a copy of a note addressed by Sir Maurice Drummond Peterson, the British Ambassador to Turkey, to the Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs under date of June 30, 1945, regarding American Lend-Lease material delivered to Turkey through British channels. The British note was sent in accordance with new instructions received by the British Ambassador from the Foreign Office in London, after ascertaining from Mr. Milton Winn, Special Representative in Turkey of the Foreign Economic Administration and myself that no objection was perceived to the note being sent.

Respectfully yours,

Edwin C. Wilson
[Page 1309]
[Enclosure]

The British Ambassador in Turkey ( Peterson ) to the Turkish Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs ( Sümer )

No. 279
(194/40/45)

Your Excellency: In connection with the delivery to Turkey through British channels of Lend-Lease goods of American origin, and in view of the arrangements concluded on February 23rd 1945 between the Turkish Minister for Foreign Affairs and the United States Ambassador, I have the honour, by direction of His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom, to inform Your Excellency that the value of any items which the United Kingdom may have received on Lend-Lease terms from the United States and which they have subsequently retransferred to the Turkish Government would be outside the scope of the Anglo-Turkish Armaments Credit, and that any obligations in respect of such items are owed direct to the United States Government by the Turkish Government.

I avail myself [etc.]

Maurice Peterson