840.00/1–2848
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Chief of the Division of Greek, Turkish, and Iranian Affairs (Jernegan)
| Participants: | The Greek Ambassador—Vassili Dendramis |
| Mr. Henderson—NEA | |
| Mr. Jernegan—GTI |
The Greek Ambassador said that he had had several communications regarding the apparent omission of Greece and Turkey from Mr. Bevin’s recently proposed plan1 for the creation of a Western bloc of European states. These communications had pointed out that Bevin had mentioned France and Italy as possible members of the bloc but had not mentioned Greece or Turkey in this connection. In particular, he had received a report of the views of the Turkish Ambassador in Rome.2 According to this report, Ambassador Erkin had suggested the thought that this omission was deliberate and that Bevin had in mind the creation of a bloc of states which would enable Great Britain to make some sort of a deal with the Soviet Union, possibly at the expense of certain small states such as Greece and Turkey. Mr. Erkin had interpreted the speech as an indication that Britain was unwilling to tie herself down in the Middle East.
Mr. Henderson said very emphatically that he thought this interpretation was entirely wrong. He had not himself drawn any such inference from Mr. Bevin’s speech. On the contrary, Mr. Bevin had made a very strong and very good statement in another part of his speech with regard to Greece. Furthermore, Mr. Henderson had no reason to believe that Great Britain had in mind any sort of deal whatsoever which would sacrifice any small state. We were in close touch with the British Government and Mr. Henderson had seen most of the communications exchanged. He therefore felt able to say that he would have known of any disposition of the sort feared by the Turkish Ambassador in Rome. He further hoped that the Greek Ambassador knew him well enough to feel sure that he, Mr. Henderson, [Page 17] would have nothing to do with any policy which proposed to sacrifice the rights of small states.
The Ambassador made no specific comment but gave the impression that he shared Mr. Henderson’s opinion and had merely communicated the reports he had received in order to get our reaction.