852.00/4746
Memorandum by the Secretary of State
The Minister of Portugal41 came in and said that his Government was opposed to the blockading of Portugal, as proposed by the nonintervention nations in their recent conferences at London and Paris. He denied that there had been any soldiers or supplies transported across his country to Spain for either side engaged in the fighting. [Page 244] He indicated that his country did favor the Franco movement on account of Bolshevism.
The Minister then said that it was rumored that the St. Germaine Treaty42 might be taken up for further discussion at the instance of the United States Government. I replied promptly that I had not heard that subject mentioned by any person, and that, of course, it was not true in the slightest.
I expressed my gratification at the kindness of the Minister in coming in and giving me the benefit of the information about the proposed blockade of Portugal by the twenty-six nations which are proposing to blockade Spain. I made it clear that this Government had pursued its own separate, individual and independent course of aloofness from all phases of the Spanish situation since the beginning, and that it would, of course, continue to do so.