711.00 Statement July 16, 1937/153
Memorandum by the Chargé in Portugal (Fernald)44
By appointment, I called at 4–30 P.M. today on Mr. Sampayo, the Secretary-General of the Foreign Ministry. He was out of town from Friday to Monday and, after the appointment was made on Monday afternoon, I sent to Mr. Sampayo a personal note enclosing a paraphrase of the Department’s circular telegram of July 22, 6 P.M., and a copy of the Statement of Mr. Hull, carried in the Paris radio bulletin of July 17th.
When I entered Mr. Sampayo’s office he brought out the papers I had sent him, which he had evidently read over. He commented that he must agree in principle with the statements made by Mr. Hull; then mentioned that the terms “economic security” and particularly “effective equality of commercial opportunity” could bear definition or elaboration. He stated that he must bring the declaration to the attention of the President of the Council, and that further comments might, perhaps, be forthcoming at a later date.
He then asked me to define “self-restraint”, and I suggested that one meaning is “not to act on impulse”; he commented: “we never do that”. With regard to “adjustment of problems” he mentioned that one of the clauses of the Constitution of Portugal requires arbitration. He stated that he is interested in the phrases “equality of—opportunity” and “equality of treatment”. He then read aloud the phrase “toward keeping alive and making effective the ground featured in the statement”, toward which I pointed my finger, and he stated that Portugal desires peace.
- Copy transmitted to the Department by the Chargé in his despatch No. 1354, July 27; received August 10.↩