740.0011 European War 1939/29819₂∕₄
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
The Spanish Ambassador called upon me this afternoon at his request upon his return from Spain. The Ambassador told me in some detail of his conversations with General Franco and with General Jordana, the Foreign Minister. I asked the Ambassador to let me have a memorandum covering all of the points which he had brought up in his conversation with me so that I might be quite sure that all [Page 608] of the information he had communicated to me would be made a matter of record in the precise and exact form in which he desired. The Ambassador told me he would send me this memorandum immediately.
The Ambassador said that he would like to repeat personally to the President the statements made to him by General Franco and his Foreign Minister. I said I would be very glad to communicate the Ambassador’s request to the President and that I would let him know what the President’s convenience might be.
In general terms the Ambassador emphasized the fact that relations between our two countries had improved materially. He stressed the fact that no one in Spain today, from General Franco on down, believed that Germany would win the war and that Spanish official opinion as well as public opinion in general believed that Germany would inevitably be defeated. General Franco apparently and a few persons closely identified with him are under the illusion that the war will be long drawn out and that some compromise peace may be arrived at as a result of the weariness of both sides. The Ambassador took occasion to say that he reminded General Franco when he was talking with him that he, the Ambassador, two years ago had given him in writing as his considered opinion that Germany could never win the war and that the United States would inevitably enter the war and decide it to the favor of the United Nations cause.
The Ambassador emphasized the fact that a bitter dispute was still going on within the Spanish Government between the Spanish Foreign Office which represented, under the direction of General Jordana, the desire for complete neutrality turning in the direction of the United Nations, and the Falange which still desired to pursue a policy friendly to the Axis powers. He made to me the categorical statement, by instruction of his Foreign Minister, in this connection that the external Falangist organization of the Spanish Government had been abolished, that all Falangist propaganda abroad had been prohibited by order of General Franco himself and that if this Government at any time had any evidence which showed that Falangist propaganda in Spanish America was being conducted and would bring this evidence to the attention of the Spanish Government, remedial action would be immediately instituted.
The Ambassador handed me the memorandum attached herewith19 referring to the policy of the Spanish Government with regard to its maintenance of neutrality.
The confidential and personal memorandum promised me by the Ambassador, as referred to in the first part of this memorandum, is also attached herewith.19