711.52/472
The Ambassador in Spain (Hayes) to the Secretary of State
No. 2430
Madrid, May 4,
1944.
[Received May 12.]
Sir: Supplementing my telegram No. 1471,
April 29, 1 p.m., I have the honor to enclose a copy of my personal
letter of May 1, 1944, to the Foreign Minister, embodying the terms
of the agreements reached with the Spanish Government as a result of
which the American and British Governments authorized the resumption
of petroleum shipments to Spain. I am enclosing, also, a copy and
translation of the Foreign Minister’s reply of May 2, 1944,
expressing his agreement with the conditions as set forth, together
with certain clarifications which I consider acceptable.
I am enclosing, as well, a copy and translation of a further letter,
dated May 2, 1944, which the Foreign Minister addressed to me and in
which he expresses the hope that our Government would at some later
date be willing to discuss the possibility of the export from Spain
to Germany of an additional twenty tons of wolfram beyond the 580
tons to which we agreed. In my reply to his letter, dated May 3,
1944, a copy of which is enclosed, I of course made clear that my
Government had not agreed to the export of any higher quantity than
580 tons during 1944 or at any other time.
I consider that the Minister’s request that we discuss at some later
date the possibility of Spain’s exporting an additional twenty tons
of wolfram to Germany, presumably in 1945, does not in any way
affect the firm agreement limiting wolfram exports to Germany during
1944 to 580 tons, and the Minister, himself, makes it clear, in his
letter, that this is his own understanding.
Respectfully yours,
[Page 410]
[Enclosure 1]
The American Ambassador in Spain
(Hayes) to the Spanish
Minister for Foreign Affairs (Jordana)
My Dear Mr. Minister and Friend: I am
glad to be able to confirm the agreements reached between us in
our conversation on April 29. My Government’s understanding of
those agreements is as follows:
- 1.
- Spanish soldiers will no longer serve with the German
army. It is understood that those who have served with
the German army in the past have now been withdrawn to
Spain.
- 2.
- Further exports of wolfram from Spain to Germany or
German-occupied or German-controlled territory during
1944 will not exceed twenty tons during May, twenty tons
during June, and forty tons monthly thereafter.
- 3.
- The Spanish Government will take steps to prevent
smuggling of wolfram out of Spain. Should smuggling
occur, appropriate penalties and deductions would be
imposed, and the above figures of maximum exports, which
in such case would be interpreted to include quantities
smuggled, would be subject to downward revision.
- 4.
- The German Consulate General in Tangier will be closed
and its personnel required to depart from Spanish or
Spanish-controlled territory. All German agents in
Tangier will be expelled and required to depart from
Spanish or Spanish-controlled territory.
- 5.
- The Japanese Legation in Madrid will be required to
withdraw its Assistant Military Attaché from
Tangier.
- 6.
- Axis sabotage and espionage agents will be expelled
from Spanish-controlled territory and from metropolitan
Spain.27
- 7.
- All Italian merchant ships remaining in Spanish ports,
except two, namely, the Madda and
the Trovatore, which will be
chartered to the Spanish Government and the ultimate
ownership of which will be subject to arbitration
following the end of the war, will be promptly released,
and the Spanish Government will grant necessary
facilities, including entry into Spanish territory of
crews when needed, to permit their departure at early
dates.
- 8.
- The question of possible release by the Spanish
Government of Italian warships now in Spanish waters
will be submitted to arbitration.
- 9.
- The Spanish Government will continue to make available
to the United States and Great Britain all necessary
facilities for the purchase and export of Spanish
products.
In consideration of the agreements and undertakings above set
forth, my Government, in cooperation with the British
Government, has authorized the resumption of petroleum shipments
to Spain, it being understood, of course, that consumption of
petroleum products in
[Page 411]
Spanish and Spanish-controlled territory will be at rates
comparable to imports.
In addition, the Embassy is prepared immediately to enter into
detailed discussions with the appropriate Spanish authorities
with regard to the development of trade exchanges between Spain
and the United States.
I am [etc.]
[Enclosure 2—Translation]
The Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs
(Jordana) to the American
Ambassador in Spain (Hayes)
My Dear Ambassador and Friend: In
acknowledging receipt of your letter of yesterday’s date which
refers to the agreement reached between us during our last
conversation on April 29, I am pleased to confirm to you the
terms of the agreement detailed in its various aspects, with
only the following clarifications in form which do not in any
sense alter its substance:
With reference to No. 3 it should be understood that, in cases of
duly proved acts of contraband, the Spanish Administration will
apply the appropriate penalties and will deduct the quantities
of wolfram which may have actually left the country as a result
of any such acts of contraband from the export quotas detailed
in No. 2.
With reference to No. 7 it should be understood, as His Britannic
Majesty’s Ambassador states in his letter of the same date, that
the German tanker Corrientes, which has
been ceded to us by the Government of the Reich as compensation
for Spanish tonnage losses inflicted by German naval forces,
will be placed under the Spanish flag.
With reference to No. 9, the terms of which I confirm, I consider
this normally tied, in due reciprocity, to the proposals set
forth in the final paragraph of the same letter.
In connection with the penultimate paragraph, which is
unnumbered, and which refers to the resumption of petroleum
shipments to Spain and to the consumption of petroleum in
quantities comparable to imports, I interpret this logically to
be based on the petroleum stocks set forth in our previous
agreements in the matter.
In expressing the agreement of the Spanish Government to the
document referred to, I take this occasion, Mr. Ambassador, to
reiterate to you my highest consideration and esteem,
[Page 412]
[Enclosure 3—Translation]
The Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs
(Jordana) to the American
Ambassador in Spain (Hayes)
My Dear Ambassador and Friend: In
connection with the agreement referred to in the letters which
Your Excellency and His Britannic Majesty’s Ambassador were kind
enough to address to me on May 1 and to which I have replied in
my letter of today, expressing the Spanish Government’s
confirmation of said agreement, I beg Your Excellency, without
prejudice to or detraction from such agreement, please to recall
the terms of our conversations, during which we had agreed to
establish the figure of 600 tons as the limit of exports to
Germany of Spanish wolfram during the present year, there
remaining for final decision only the distribution of such
shipments, that is, whether they should or should not be
confined to the second six months of the year, which, point has
been settled in accordance with the formula set forth in the
letters referred to above.
But since in those letters there is provision for the
distribution of a total quantity of only 580 tons, which
represents a reduction of 20 tons from the figure which, as a
result of the conversations referred to I proposed to the
Spanish Government, and which the latter approved, I have the
honor to address the present letter to you in order to say that,
while it is not for the time being advisable to delay for this
reason the normalization of our economic relations and the
termination of the crisis through which those relations have
passed during the last three months, I hope, nevertheless, that
the Government at Washington, which at one time had authorized
Your Excellency to agree to the total figure of 600 tons, will
facilitate at an appropriate time, and in separate conversations
which in no manner would detract from the agreement which we
have reached, a study of the form and timing of the export of
the 20 tons referred to.
In the hope that Your Excellency will please lend to this desire
of the Spanish Government the efficacious support of your
personal authority, I take the occasion to reiterate to you,
with assurances of my high consideration, the expression of my
personal friendship,
[Enclosure 4]
The American Ambassador in Spain
(Hayes) to the Spanish
Minister for Foreign Affairs (Jordana)
My Dear Mr. Minister and Friend: I
have received your letter of May 2nd referring to conversations
between us during which
[Page 413]
mention was made of my Government’s willingness to agree to
the shipment of 600 tons of wolfram from Spain to Germany during
the year 1944.
Your Excellency refers, also, to the agreement finally reached
between us, which was set forth in my letter of May 1, 1944, and
confirmed by Your Excellency, on behalf of the Spanish
Government, in your reply of May 2, 1944, and which provides
that exports of wolfram to Germany and German-occupied and
German-controlled territory during 1944 shall be limited to 580
tons.
Your Excellency then expresses the hope that my Government, at an
appropriate time, without prejudice to or detraction from the
agreement limiting wolfram exports during 1944 to 580 tons, will
study the form and timing of the export of 20 tons, which
represent the difference between 600 tons and 580 tons.
In reply, I beg to remind Your Excellency that I did, in fact,
say at one time during our discussions that my Government was
prepared to consent to the export of not more than 600 tons of
wolfram to Germany during the year 1944. However, the
willingness of my Government to agree to a limitation of 600
tons was specifically conditioned on the Spanish Government’s
agreeing, in turn, not to export further quantities of wolfram
to Germany prior to July 1, 1944. After Your Excellency had
expressed the Spanish Government’s unwillingness to continue the
then existing embargo on wolfram exports until July 1, 1944, my
Government authorized me to agree to total exports of not more
than 580 tons during 1944, 300 tons of which had already been
exported in January, 1944, and the remainder of which might be
exported in monthly quotas, beginning in May, as set forth in my
letter of May 1.
In other words, my Government has agreed to further wolfram
exports from Spain to Germany and German-occupied and
German-controlled territory in amounts not to exceed 20 tons in
May, 20 tons in June, and 40 tons during each of the succeeding
months of 1944. It has not agreed to the export of additional
amounts of wolfram in 1944, or thereafter, and is not in a
position at this time to enter into discussion of its economic
program with Spain for the period following December 31,
1944.
In again setting forth, above, the agreement concerning wolfram
to which my Government has given its consent, I have endeavored,
in the interest of both our Governments, to use as precise
language as possible in order not to leave room for doubt
concerning my Government’s position in the matter.
I am [etc.]
[Page 414]
[In June 1944 the United States and the United Kingdom again
sought from Spain a complete embargo on wolfram. Although
the Spanish Government agreed to suspend exports for June
and later suspended the July and August quotas, it did not
make a definite commitment with regard to a complete
embargo. However, wolfram shipments to Germany were not
resumed during the remainder of the war.]
