652.00/2742: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Third Secretary of Embassy in Spain (Wendelin)
94. Your X–79, August 21, 8 p.m. Please address the following note to the Minister of State in reply to the Minister’s note verbale of August 20:2
“Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of August 20, 1936, requesting me to inform my Government, in order that American merchant ships might be warned and possible incidents thus avoided, that your Government has declared Spanish ports in control of the insurgents, both on the Spanish mainland and in Morocco and the Balearic and Canary Islands, a war zone into which merchant vessels will not be permitted to enter.
My Government directed me to inform you in reply that, with the friendliest feelings toward the Spanish Government, it cannot admit [Page 683] the legality of any action on the part of the Spanish Government in declaring such ports closed unless that Government declares and maintains an effective blockade of such ports. In taking this position my Government is guided by a long line of precedents in international law with which the Spanish Government is doubtless familiar.”
- The note was delivered to the Spanish Foreign Office on August 26, 1936 (852.00/2822).↩