852.01/576: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs (Jordana)
In reply to Your Excellency’s telegram of April 2nd, I may state that the expressed desire of the Government of the United States to establish diplomatic relations, as well as its request for the agreement of the name of a new Ambassador, carried with it de jure recognition of Your Excellency’s Government as the National Government of Spain. Pending the appointment of a Spanish Ambassador here, this Government is glad as from today to accept Mr. Cardenas as Chargé d’Affaires of Spain.
Pending the receipt of the agreement requested for Mr. Weddell as Ambassador of the United States, I will request Your Excellency to receive Mr. H. Freeman Matthews, at present First Secretary of the Embassy of the United States in Paris, as Chargé d’Affaires ad interim.52 Mr. Matthews will serve as Chargé d’Affaires ad interim until the arrival of an Ambassador of the United States.
- H. Freeman Matthews was designated First Secretary of Embassy in Spain on April 4, 1939, and instructed to proceed to Burgos. Before he departed for Burgos he was informed by the Spanish Embassy in France that because of the overcrowded conditions at Burgos the Spanish Government preferred that the various embassies and legations establish themselves at San Sebastian. (123M431/166, 169)↩