This letter is dated September 19, 1944, and is written in the
English language. Copy is enclosed for the Department’s
convenience.
I venture to add, as of personal knowledge, that great care has gone
into the preparation of this letter, the President himself having
studied and worked over its every paragraph with his Premier and
Foreign Minister. Consequently its statement and discussion of the
burning issues of this pre-war-end period, as they see them, are of
special interest.
Similar appeals, I was informed by the Foreign Minister’s secretary
who today handed me this letter, have been addressed by President
Quwatly to King George and Marshal Stalin with appropriate
modification of opening paragraph.
[Enclosure]
The President of the Syrian Republic
(Kuwatly) to President
Roosevelt
[Damascus,] September 19,
1944.
Mr. President: Your diplomatic
representative, who has our entire confidence and whose aim is
to assure the mutual interests of your
[Page 788]
great country and our own, and to maintain
peace and justice in this part of the world, has informed us of
the disposition of the United States to recognize the Syrian
Republic unconditionally and to exchange diplomatic
representatives with it. The Syrian Government has expressed its
great satisfaction and high appreciation for this friendly
gesture and I am pleased to add thereto my own. This gesture is
moreover a confirmation of the political traditions of the
United States and of its idealism, which have always found in
this country a deep and sympathetic repercussion since the time
when your great predecessor, President Wilson, proclaimed to the
world the principles of justice for all nations, large and
small, and since an American commission48 came to Syria in
1919 to carry out a plebiscite which would indicate the desires
of the Syrian people. Moreover, in the Atlantic Charter and the
Four Freedoms49 which you
yourself have proclaimed you have given a new impetus to the
traditional American policy.
In this connection permit me to describe the political state of
our country. Syria has been liberated during this war from the
chains of secret agreements which it was made to endure in the
name of the Mandate, and has struggled ceaselessly until its
rights and national identity have been realized. The situation
in Syria is, however, from the internal as well as external
viewpoint clear and normal. From the internal viewpoint Syria
has during the past year established its constitutional and
democratic institutions based on the will of the people. As to
the external viewpoint the great Powers, such as the United
States, Great Britain, Russia, and all the Arab States and
others as well, have recognized the sovereignty and independence
of the Syrian Republic to which they have also accredited their
diplomatic representatives. Even the representatives of France
concluded on December 22, 1943, an agreement with the Syrian
Government recognizing the independence and sovereignty of Syria
and turning over to it all the powers which France had hitherto
exercised in the name of Syria. The Syrian Government, for its
part, continues to administer all the interests of the country
and to exercise completely its attributions with all the
responsibilities resulting therefrom. Only the question of the
Army still remains unsettled, for, in spite of the fact that
negotiations for turning it over to the Syrian Government
[Page 789]
have already been
completed, the French have not yet done so. We insist however
that this be done.
In view of the foregoing, you will be surprised to learn, Mr.
President, that the British Minister has made a verbal
communication to the Syrian Government, the tenor of which is to
invite this Government to enter into negotiations with the
representatives of France for the conclusion of a treaty between
France and Syria. These negotiations would have as their
purpose, he states, the normalization of the situation in Syria
on a diplomatic basis. The French Delegate General has made the
same request adding that with this treaty France should obtain a
privileged position in Syria and that he made this request as a
result of a recent exchange of views between M. Massigli50
and Mr. Eden in London.
We can see no reason however why Syria should enter into
negotiations with the French Government, since such negotiations
could have no useful result, in view of the fact that we do not
wish to grant France any advantage from either the cultural,
material, political or military viewpoint. We desire to treat
with all Nations, especially the great Powers, on a footing of
complete equality. This attitude on our part does not signify a
hostile feeling toward any State whatsoever but does signify a
legitimate attachment to the defense of our rights and
interests.
Any other attitude would be in contradiction with the principles
of the common law and the basic rules proclaimed in the course
of this war concerning the law of nations by the Atlantic
Charter, the United Nations’ Declaration, and other documents
and statements, and would above all be in contradiction with the
rights and the interests of the Syrian people and the interests
of peace in the Middle East.
The Syrian Government believes it to be its duty to avoid any
contractual policy with France alone, because such a policy
would signify the renunciation of everything that has so far
been accomplished and would moreover signify the abandonment of
the rights of the Syrian people, who have based such great hopes
on the United Nations and the great principles for which they
have fought in the course of the present war.
Therefore, the Syrian Government, placing its entire confidence
in the great statesmen of the democratic countries, especially
in the United States and its eminent President, declines to make
any agreement according a privileged position to any State
whatsoever. It furthermore desires to have a common policy with
all the Arab States in order to safeguard peace in the Middle
East, the great importance of which this war has
demonstrated.
[Page 790]
The high principles of the freedom and liberty of nations are
being put to the test in this country as well as everywhere else
in the world. We trust that the world will not again be deceived
by secret and private agreements made before the end of the war.
We also trust that the United States will not again remain
isolated from the affairs of the old world but will rather help
to uphold right and justice everywhere and will aid the weak
nations who do not have the means of defending themselves
against the strong, for peace cannot be placed on a permanent
basis if colonial and expansionist ambitions are not everywhere
eliminated.
Will you please accept [etc.]
