811.7353b W 52/175½

Memorandum of a Conversation between the Assistant Secretary of State (Harrison) and Messrs. Goldhammer and Burden of the Commercial Cable and Postal Telegraph Companies, November 22, 1923

Mr. Goldhammer stated the present status of the situation regarding the Company’s enterprises at the Azores and explained the reasons which had influenced the Company in their decision to secure landing rights through the British company. He was glad to say that he had found that the 1913 rights which they had secured through the British company had not been invalidated through the lapse of time and that it had been found possible to obtain an extension of these rights by action of the Council of Ministers of Portugal without again submitting the matter to the Portuguese Parliament. The Company had been glad in this way to avoid direct contact with the Portuguese officials. Their relations in the future as in the past would be handled through the British company. In view of this situation, the Company did not propose to secure legislative action on a direct concession.

Mr. Goldhammer also mentioned the Company’s relations with Mr. Suarez and the efforts of their German connecting company itself to procure landing rights in the Azores, that presumably these would have to be obtained through the British company or at least with the assistance of the British company, and in this connection he informed me that the Germans had reached an agreement to land the loose [Page 301] end of the Emden cable in Great Britain, there to connect with the Eastern, for South American traffic via the Azores and the Western Company.