890g.6363 T 84/62

The Secretary of State to the President of the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey (W. C. Teagle)

My Dear Mr. Teagle: I have received your letter of December 13th enclosing a copy of a cablegram from your London representative and quoting your reply thereto in regard to certain proposals of the present partners in the Turkish Petroleum Company, Limited. I have noted your reference, in the telegram quoted in your letter, to this Department’s attitude towards the claims of the Turkish [Page 349] Petroleum Company, but in view of certain statements in your London representative’s telegram of December 12th, I would again call your attention to this Government’s correspondence with the British Government setting forth the Department’s views as to the invalidity of concessions alleged to have been obtained in Mesopotamia by this Company.

From the memorandum of your London conversations, which you left with me some months ago and to which I referred in my letter of August 22nd, I understand that it is the view of the American group that all concessions now held, or which may be acquired in the future, by the Turkish Petroleum Company should be confirmed by the proper governmental authorities before any attempt is made at their development.

With respect to the statement in the telegram of your London representative as to the support of the proposed arrangement to the exclusion of other interests American or otherwise, permit me to say that such a suggestion is entirely inadmissible. I had understood that the proposed arrangement embraced all American companies which had expressed the desire to participate. As I said in my letter of August 22nd, it rests chiefly with American commercial interests themselves once the opportunity is offered through the application of the principle of the Open Door, to determine the extent and terms of their participation and to decide whether under existing circumstances an adequate opportunity is offered. This Department can never take the position that it will support at any time any arrangement to the exclusion of American interests. The Department’s efforts are directed, as stated in my letters of August 22nd and December 2nd,71 to giving effect to the principle of the Open Door for American interests and not to the support of one American interest as against another or to the conclusion of any particular business arrangements. You will therefore understand that the Department cannot appropriately take the action suggested in your representative’s telegram.

I am [etc.]

Charles E. Hughes
  1. Not printed.