852.75 National Telephone Company/88: Telegram
The Ambassador in Spain (Laughlin) to the Secretary of State
108. I have just received a note dated December 7 from the Minister of State reading in translation as follows:
“I have the honor to acknowledge to Your Excellency your notes numbers 590 and 592 of this December 3 and 5, respectively, in continuation of my note addressed to you on the 2nd of this month, I have the honor to inform Your Excellency that the Government of the Republic is putting into effect the criterion enunciated therein as follows from the statement made at yesterday’s session of the Cortes by the President of the Council of Ministers and from the notification given to the National Telephone Company inviting it to [Page 580] designate representatives to undertake an examination and revision of the contract.
I avail myself, et cetera.”
It seems to me satisfactory if the “criterion” established is to be that of “joint examination”. This definition was given Wiley in a conversation he had last night with Lopez Olivan, political director of the Foreign Office.
I confined myself in a numbered note to a mere acknowledgment of receipt to avoid beginning an exchange of explanatory correspondence but in order to consolidate our position I have written Zulueta the following letter.
“As I understand you are on the point of leaving for Geneva to be absent for some little time I want to send you a word to express my best wishes for your journey and your labors in case I do not have the pleasure of seeing you again before your departure and to add for Your Excellency’s information that in the comments I have sent to Washington in transmitting your last note on the telephone matter I have explained that the ‘criterion’ mentioned is that of ‘joint examination’.
With many cordial regards, I et cetera.”
- Telegram in two sections.↩