852.00/5907: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Bingham) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 3—10:45 a.m.]
432. The Franco-British recent proposal to fill the gap in the naval control system by making the French and British fleets responsible for the supervision of the whole of the Spanish coast with an understanding that neutral observers might be stationed in the patrolling warships, was countered at yesterday’s meeting of the Non-Intervention Subcommittee by German-Italian proposals for resolving the present deadlock. This has been referred to the interested governments. In brief the German-Italian counterproposals were
- (a)
- that all interested powers should grant the two parties in Spain belligerent rights
- (b)
- that the international naval control system should be abandoned
- (c)
- that the rest of the present supervision system on land and sea should be maintained.
In conversation this morning the Foreign Office points out that unsatisfactory as the German-Italian proposals are they are accompanied by an emphatic assurance that the two powers “are firmly resolved to maintain the principle of non-intervention” and by an acknowledgement that “it is the duty of all to seek new ways and methods to make non-intervention as effective as possible”.
Foreign Office further added that the outstanding British interest in Spain is to keep the situation localized and they will press forward in an attempt to reach a compromise between the two positions before the full meeting of the Non-intervention Committee which will take place next week. Meanwhile it is noted here with some satisfaction that the Germans are reported to have taken all ships out of the Mediterranean to prevent an incident and that Italian naval vessels are reported as not in evidence in Spanish waters.