740.0011 European War 1939/25520: Telegram
The Ambassador in Spain (Hayes) to the Secretary of State
[Received 5:28 p.m.]
1766. I have received from the Foreign Minister the following letter addressed to the President by General Franco on November 10th (translation).
“My dear President: I have received from the hands of your Ambassador the letter in which, actuated by the relations of friendship which unite our peoples, and which in their benefit should be preserved, you explain to me the reasons which induced Your Excellency to send troops of the American Army to occupy the territories of the French possessions and protectorates in North Africa.
I accept with pleasure and I thank you for the assurances which Your Excellency offers the Government and the people of Spain to the effect that the measures adopted are not in any manner directed against their interests, or against their territories, metropolitan or overseas, or against the protectorate in Morocco, and I confidently hope that the relations among the Moroccan peoples of both zones likewise will in the future be maintained in the same spirit of peace and of reciprocal confidence which have characterized them up to now.
I can assure you that Spain knows the value of peace and sincerely desires peace for itself and for all other peoples.
On this occasion I am pleased to reciprocate the same friendly sentiments you expressed to me and to express my intention of avoiding anything which might disturb our relations in any of their aspects, and I reiterate with a salutation the expression of my personal esteem and sincere friendship.
Signed Francisco Franco.
Palace of El Prado, November 10, 1942.
To His Excellency, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America.”