852.115 Warner and Co., Wm. R./14: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Consul General at Barcelona (Perkins)
Your September 24, 4 p.m.56 and September 24, 8 p.m. In connection with the protest referred to in paragraph 3 of your September 24, 8 p.m. you should state, among other things:
(1) That instructions were not given to you to take action in the case of the Laboratorio y Comercio Substancia until the Department had satisfied itself by careful examination of the documents referred to in its September 15, 1 p.m.,56 that the Company was in fact 100% American-owned and that there was no Spanish interest, except of a negligible character, in either the Company or the bank account in question; that your Government exercised the greatest care in the matter before instructing you to make representations, for the reason that it does not desire to be placed in the position of endeavoring to protect other than bona fide American interests;
(2) that your Government had reason to believe from earlier announcements of the Spanish authorities that American-owned property was not to be interfered with, and was gratified at this reasonable and perfectly proper attitude which seemed to reflect not only a sense of justice but an appreciation of this Government’s entirely neutral position and determination to interfere in no wise with the unfortunate situation obtaining in Spain;
(3) that your Government is loath to believe that, upon being apprised of the status of American-owned bank accounts and gold deposits, the local authorities will persist in their seeming present purpose to take them over, since such action in the circumstances obtaining, amounts in effect to confiscation of private property, contrary to international law and inconsistent with the good relations existing between the two countries and their peoples.
[Page 730]You should express the earnest hope and conviction of your Government that upon further consideration of the matter in the light of the facts stated in the Department’s cable of September 15 and the present instruction the orders of requisition will be revoked and the accounts left undisturbed.
(4) The Department leaves to your discretion whether in the light of the situation as discussed in your telegram of September 16, 1 p.m., the legality, under Spanish law, of the action of the local authorities should be questioned.
(5) You should of course not request representatives of the bank to take any action in the protection of financial accounts which might endanger their personal safety. It is not the desire of the Department that human lives should be endangered by efforts to protect property interests.