78. An appeal to the people of the United States against the embargo on
Almerian grapes and Spanish oranges appeared in the New York Times of December 18 under the name of Primo de
Rivera.14
Please advise the Department whether Primo de Rivera actually made this
statement, and if so, report the circumstances under which it was
issued. In particular, state whether at the time of its issuance the
Premier had received a reply in the sense of the Department’s 75,
December 12, 3 p.m., to his letter addressed to Ambassador Moore quoted
in your 78, December 13, 1 p.m.
[Paraphrase.] The motives of the Spanish Government in raising the matter
of the embargo on Spanish oranges at this time is not wholly understood
by this Department, as the embargo has been in force for 8 months
without protest, nor is it understood why Primo de Rivera should have
issued a public statement before any answer had been given to the formal
protest of the Spanish Ambassador at Washington dated December 12.
Also, please comment on the final paragraph of the Department’s telegram
No. 75 of December 12, 3 p.m. [End paraphrase.]
An Article Reprinted From the “New York Times”
of December 18, 1925
De Rivera Asks Us for Fair
Treatment
by primo de rivera,
premier
and former dictator of spain
Madrid, Dec. 17.—One
of the greatest satisfactions of the Government of the Directorate
has been the daily proof of the good will of the people of the
United States toward Spain, manifested not only through its
benevolent expressions of Ambassador Moore, who leaves behind him
such pleasing reminiscences among Spaniards, but also by the
presence of the American sailors at Cartagena and Cadiz, where
there, in union with ours, they rendered tribute to those heroes who
a little over a quarter of a century ago, struggled so nobly and
honorably in the battles of Cavite in the Philippines and in
Santiago in Cuba.
We responded to this attitude by according preferential commercial
treatment to imports from the United States, and especially by
favorable treatment of the tourists whose numbers we saw with
pleasure increasing daily.
But a certain incident—undoubtedly the off-spring of ill
interpretation—has caused some distrust to grow in the minds of
Spanish producers concerning the truth of these affections they held
in such high esteem.
With regard to the dry law, which causes such great damage to
wine-producing countries such as Spain, we have nothing to observe
in view of the fact that the question concerns a measure of a
general character which the United States by virtue of its
sovereignty saw fit to pass, but there followed the dry law certain
hindrances regarding the importation of Almeria grapes, which had a
preferential market in the United States. These obstructions were
founded upon the presence of the Mediterranean fly and the
possibility that the grapes might be infested thereby. Within the
intervention of experts from the United States and absorbing care on
the part of the Almeria producers it [has] been proved that the
vineyards in the province of Almeria—where all kinds of measures had
been taken both in the cultivation and production and in the packing
and transportation in order that the grapes originating there might
be presented in the world—are absolutely free from that fly.
We have achieved nothing in favor of our products, on the contrary
the prohibition has been extended on the same pretext to the Spanish
orange, which had no great market in the United States, but which
was indicated in this manner as being infected without
[Page 719]
justification, and will
produce a motive of alarm in other markets which have a great
consumption of this fruit, which nowhere is so carefully cultivated
and of such exquisite quality.
Points to Balance of
Trade
Without doubt the fruit producers of California are bringing pressure
to bear on the American Government with a view to preventing foreign
competition, which might well be understood were the commercial
balance of exchange of products, and consequently of money, in favor
of Spain. Unhappily for us this is not so, and for every million
dollars of goods exported to the United States we receive thence
more than $10,000,000. We pay for it with good dollars, a fact which
with the present high rate of exchange means considerable sacrifices
for Spain.
Everyone knows Spain imports from the United States cotton, petroleum
products, automobiles and machinery, and if of the first named it
may be said that we import it through peremptory necessity for our
manufactories of cotton cloths, petroleum products, automobiles and
various kinds of machinery are being constantly offered to us under
competitive conditions by other countries, the importation of the
products of which, if given preference, would diminish by many
millions of dollars the commerce of the United States with
Spain.
This admonition cannot constitute a menace for we well know that by
comparison of the volume of the exportations of the United States
with its commerce with Spain it means relatively little; this is an
appeal for justice to the United States not to forget the favorable
treatment she owes to our products in compensation for the many of
her products we consume.
Moreover the United States must always reserve for Spain an intimate
spiritual relationship. Spain is the mother of all Spanish-America;
there our blood, our venturesome frank character, our culture and
our tradition are sown. The United States and the new American
people, inspired by a race other than Spanish, have predominated the
American continent and are the guide and example of those peoples,
but the United States, neither in America nor the Philippines, can
ever do without the seed which Spain left in those lands. Only
united with Spain in the diffusion of culture and in a reciprocity
of interests can America establish her true racial type and achieve
reciprocity sentiments which will give still greater strength and
influence to the American race.
Besides Spain, more or less in an effective way holds the
preponderant place in the straits connecting the Atlantic and the
Mediterranean, which gives her an efficacious value in world affairs
that
[Page 720]
the United States
should always seek to have on her side in case of an eventual
attempt to cut the communications between those two seas.
The Foundation in Madrid protected by the Rockefellers, the
participation of Spain in the sesquicentennial exposition at
Philadelphia and that of the United States in the Seville Fair, the
safety of travel in Spain on the highways, which is becoming better
daily and the welcome which the American tourist receives should
persuade the United States to which $500,000 in its commercial
balance is insignificant, not to rupture any interchange of products
which today exists between the both countries, but on the contrary
to stimulate reciprocal commerce more and more each day.
We well know that the people of the United States, who are a
spiritual people, follow with the greatest interest the political
evolution of Spain, which is trying to free her people of the
disturbances and confusions toward which they were being borne by a
system of wornout politics carried on by professional parties,
unreinforced by elements taken from the great educational production
or labor centres.
The people of the United States also follow with interest the noble
and firm determination with which Spain is attempting to fulfill in
Africa her civilizing mission; and esteem the value, tradition and
history of a people of such great nobility as ours. Therefore it
should not be difficult to cultivate between both nations the
relations which until now have been so well directed and which only
this small cloud of opposition to the admittance of our fruits has
been able slightly to cool.
It is convenient for Spain in these days to be visited by the
greatest possible number of foreigners in order that they appreciate
the tranquility and order in which the country lives, as well as the
prosperity of the industries, the progress and the work. To
facilitate this the Government is preparing tourist itineraries.
Travelers will find good hotels, guides, facilities for hiring
automobiles and magnificent highways for travel by motor. Thus every
foreigner who visits us returns to his country a witness and
propagator of the beauty and good order of Spain, of the love of the
people for their King and the respect they bear their
Government.
