852.00/6329
The Spanish Ambassador (De los Rios) to the Secretary of State
Mr. Secretary: As “aide-mémoire” of our conversation of yesterday based on the public statement of the Chairman of the Committee of Foreign Affairs of the Senate, Mr. Key Pittman, I take the liberty of referring to the terms of the same in which I repeated to you my Government’s views concerning the neutrality law of the United States, on which subject I have had the honor to converse with Your Excellency on various occasions. I recalled to you that it had always believed that the said law prejudiced the rights which international juridical rules recognize to all legal governments and that it was a partial law, first, because it placed the rebel aggressor on a footing of equality with the legal government; and, second, because its application has not been extended to the invading and aggressor countries, like Italy and Germany, its effects, therefore, being limited to the diminution of the rights of the Spanish Government, a legitimate Government elected by the people and recognized by the United States as a de jure and de facto government. These statements, which certainly are not new to Your Excellency, show the erroneousness of the statements of Senator Pittman, according to which the Spanish Government had not made a protest nor expressed any complaint on account of the neutrality law. I desire to recall to Your Excellency all that I have set forth orally on various occasions, for otherwise it might be thought that the apathy of my Government was so great that an act new in international law, as is that which has been done in [Page 380] the case of Spain, had not pained, and pained keenly, the Government which I have the honor to represent.
I avail myself [etc.]