852.75 National Telephone Company/87: Telegram
The Ambassador in Spain (Laughlin) to the Secretary of State
[Received 3:20 p.m.]
107. The Cortes last night approved the Government’s request to withdraw the telephone question from discussion and to “suspend any legislative action connected with the affair of the National Telephone Company until the Government shall have terminated its action”. Azaña himself presented the matter in a full explanation which will be forwarded by pouch. He announced that “the Government would take the question in hand in order to settle it conclusively” when its decision would be submitted to the Cortes. His most significant phrase from our point of view was that the telephone affair “does not involve any menace to the vital interests of the nation either of a moral, economic or juridic nature”. This is an important admission to which we can return when necessity for further representations arises. Azaña’s speech amounted to a request for a vote of confidence which was given 101 against 11.
Your contention against nullification or unilateral treatment of the contract which Zulueta assured me would not occur (see my telegram No. 106, December 5, 7 p.m.) is now at least tacitly conceded [Page 579] by the Cortes and a public statement from you on the present situation might be desirable in the telephone company’s interest.