681.116/34
The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Spain (Bowers)
Sir: With further reference to the alleged suppression of American trade in the Spanish Zone of Morocco, as set forth in the Department’s instruction No. 39, of September 28, 1933, your attention is further directed to the despatch, No. 901 of December 18, 1933, from the American Diplomatic Agency at Tangier,24 copy of which, the Department is advised, has been furnished your Embassy. In this connection receipt is acknowledged of your despatch No. 177, of October 19, 1933, in which the Department was informed that you had presented this matter to the new Minister of State, Señor Sanchez Albornoz, expressing the hope that the situation would soon be corrected and that steps would be taken to have these regulations which are in violation of our treaty rights withdrawn by the Spanish Government. The Department has received no further communication.
Your representation related specifically to alleged embarrassments to American trade in cereals (flour) shipped into Spanish Morocco. A most recent impediment to American trade relates to a consignment of [Page 985] 50 cases of prunes received at the port of Tangier from Messrs. Libby, MacNeil and Libby of Chicago, and stopped at the Spanish frontier upon the alleged pretext of the necessity of routing the merchandise by way of Río Martin (the port of Tetuan) because of the absence of facilities for phytopathological inspection at the frontier customs between Tangier and the Spanish Zone.
You are requested to furnish orally to the Spanish Minister of State this additional information with regard to alleged impediments to American trade in Spanish Morocco, and again express the hope that this matter will be investigated promptly to the end that the situation adversely affecting the importation of American products into the Spanish Zone will be corrected without delay.
Very truly yours,
- Not printed.↩