383.0063/34
The American Minister in Egypt (Kirk) to the Egyptian Minister for Foreign Affairs (Samy)74
Excellency: I have the honor to refer to the ‘Royal Ministry’s note no. 63, file no. 38.106/2 of June 12, 1941 in reply to my communication of May 24 transmitting a memorandum setting forth certain considerations regarding the prospective effect on American educational institutions in Egypt of legislation reported to be under consideration with a view to the amendment of Law 40 of 1934 governing the activities of private schools.
I have noted with pleasure the assurances given in the Royal Ministry’s note in respect of the favorable disposition of the Egyptian Government toward foreign educational institutions in general and American institutions in particular and the statement of the Royal Ministry that any legislation framed affecting such institutions would be in accordance with the engagements given by the Egyptian Government under the Montreux Convention and appended instruments. In order, however, to avoid any possible misunderstanding in this connection I venture to invite the attention of the Royal Ministry to a point mentioned in its note under reference which does not accord with information available to me on the subject. I refer to the statement to the effect that “the amendments affecting foreign institutions had the full consent of those in charge of the institutions themselves, with the possible exception of the item dealing with religious teaching about which there was a slight divergence of opinion”. It is my understanding in this connection that in addition to the matter of religious instruction there were certain other subjects on which the representatives of the foreign schools, including the representatives of the American schools, failed to agree in whole or in part with the representatives of the Ministry of Education and that certain of these differences of opinion were set forth in letters addressed to the Minister of Education by these representatives, copies of three of which, dated March 14, 1941, March 21, 1941 and March 26, 1941, respectively, are transmitted herewith.75 The contents of these memoranda are deemed to be self explanatory.
Another aspect of this matter to which I would invite Your Excellency’s attention is the informal character of the conferences held between the representatives of the Ministry of Education and of foreign institutions. It is my understanding that the activity of the [Page 329] representatives of foreign institutions, including the American, in this connection was confined exclusively to personal consultation on the invitation of the Minister of Education with a view to the benefit which might accrue from a free exchange of ideas on matters of mutual interest and that the representatives of the foreign institutions were not empowered officially to make any commitments in respect of the organizations with which they were identified and to which they had not submitted the proposals, nor were they authorized in any way whatsoever to speak for American institutions whose representatives did not attend the conferences. Reference is made in this connection to the letter dated March 21, 1941 addressed to the Minister of Education by the representatives of certain schools, already mentioned above as an enclosure herewith.
I should be most appreciative if Your Excellency would be so good as to use your good offices to bring these considerations to the attention of the appropriate authorities with a view to removing such misunderstanding on the subject as now apparently exists. At the same time, I would add that upon consultation with representatives of American educational institutions since the receipt of the Royal Ministry’s note under acknowledgement I find that upon the basis of information available to them they are still apprehensive that the proposed legislation would be prejudicial to their status as guaranteed under the Montreux Convention and in this connection I wish to reiterate to Your Excellency the hope of my Government that no action will be taken by the Egyptian Government in derogation of such formal guarantees or of the generally cooperative position taken by the Egyptian representatives at Montreux in respect of foreign educational institutions.
I wish to assure Your Excellency of my readiness to furnish any further information in the premises which you may require or to discuss the matter with you personally should you so desire.
Please accept [etc.]