852.00/5608
Memorandum by the Secretary of State
The Spanish Ambassador called at his own request. I first said to him that I, of course, was extremely sorry, without regard to the facts or merits, to learn of the two unfortunate incidents on Saturday night and Sunday morning pertaining to the bombing from the air of a German battleship off Ibiza, Balearic Islands, and the bombarding in return of Almeria.
The Ambassador then said that he came in to call attention to the official facts pertaining to these two related incidents. He said first that the Deutschland had no right to be stationed at this island; that the patrolling of this locality was charged to the French Navy according to the non-intervention agreement among the different nations; that the Spanish airplanes were first attacked by this German battleship; that the attack on Almeria was contrary to international law and without justification from every standpoint. The Ambassador then referred to previous military interference in the Spanish civil strife on the part of Germany and, as I recall, Italy, and earnestly [Page 314] requested that this Government assume an attitude of condemning the German action for the reasons already stated.
I replied that this Government from the beginning of the Spanish internal strife has pursued its own separate independent course with respect to all developments relating to the Spanish situation and is continuing to do so; that this Government is primarily interested in keeping out of war and incidental to this is interested in peace everywhere; that in accordance with this attitude I have made it a practice up to this hour of preaching peace generally to every part of the world and of earnestly expressing the hope that each government involved in any way in the Spanish situation may find a way for the peaceful adjustment of every difficulty arising; that this especially relates to the two recent incidents already referred to in our conversation; and that I expressed this earnest hope alike to each government involved in these two related incidents of Saturday and Sunday.
The Ambassador was not satisfied, but again expressed his desire that this Government make some announcement condemnatory of the recent German course.
To this I again said that the Government for the present could only undertake to assemble the official facts and circumstances and that then the question of policy would arise; that in the meantime the Government had nothing further to say except a special urging upon the governments involved to find ways to preserve the peace.