852.00/2671: Telegram
The Ambassador in Germany (Dodd) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 18—2:35 p.m.]
257. The following communiqué has just been issued by the semiofficial news agency DNB:
(Translation) “As we learn from a competent source the French Government yesterday informed the German Government of a Franco-British agreement regarding the position to be taken with reference to the occurrences in Spain.
According to this the two Governments will prohibit the export of arms, munitions and implements of war as well as air and war vessels [Page 494] to Spain, the Spanish possessions, and the Spanish zone in Morocco, as soon as the Italian, the Russian, the Portuguese and the German Governments shall have given their consent to this agreement.
The German Government has replied to the French Government that it is prepared on its side to issue a similar prohibition provided that (1) the German transport plane still held in Madrid by the Spanish Government shall be released and (2) all countries which possess industries for the production of war material and aircraft to an appreciable extent shall bind themselves similarly and that especially the delivery through private firms or persons shall be included in the embargo.
In addition the German Government has indicated that it would be urgently desirable if the governments concerned would extend their measures to include the prevention of the departure of volunteers to the conflicts in the districts coming into question.”
An American journalist states that in response to inquiry at the Foreign Office he was told that the German Government is concerned principally with Czechoslovakia under the designation “all countries” in condition (2) and is not inclined to include the United States in this proviso.
In conversation with Italian Embassy this morning it was indicated that a German reply of this nature would shortly be published. We were told that the Italian Government, and it was thought also the German Government, while both desirous of participating in a neutrality agreement, felt there were serious difficulties in view of the difference in the position of Italy and Germany on the one hand and of France on the other. Germany and Italy were in a position definitely to prevent shipments of arms, departure of volunteers or propagandists, et cetera. Contrariwise, France would always be able to excuse any dereliction in this respect on the ground that she had no control over the actions of private individuals.
The Italian Embassy remarked that Italy could not contemplate the establishment of a Communistic state in the Mediterranean. In the course of the conversation, however, the Italian Embassy showed that it was fully aware of the dangers and inefficacy of intervention which it appeared anxious to avoid although in a quandary as to how to deal satisfactorily with the Spanish situation.