852.01/494: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Bullitt) to the Secretary of State
[Received 1:55 p.m.]
373. The Secretary of the Treasury informed me yesterday that he would be glad to have information on the present situation. The following conversation which I had last night with Bonnet may be of interest to him.
Bonnet said that Berard had been offered formally the post of French Ambassador in Spain and had refused. He regretted this greatly as Berard had conducted the negotiations with Jordana with the greatest skill. At the outset Jordana had said that Spain had nothing to discuss with France and was not interested in anything but de jure recognition. Berard had replied that France would give de jure recognition but that in addition to the simple problem of recognition there was the more important problem of restoring the normal close friendship between Spain and France.
Berard had then worked out with Jordana a number of written agreements covering matters of mutual interest such as the return of property of the Spanish State now in France, the return of Spanish refugees now in France, et cetera. Jordana and Berard had signed a written agreement providing that France and Spain should in future live on the terms of “good neighbors”.
Bonnet said that this agreement was couched in vague terms but that it was reinforced by a number of official verbal statements. Jordana had stated officially that the old agreement between France and Spain forbidding fortification of the Balearic Islands was still in force and would remain in force.
[Page 757](Bonnet added that at the present time there were no Italian forces in any of the Balearics except in Majorca where there were 600 soldiers and 80 airplanes.) Jordana had refused to make any definite promise with regard to the future neutrality of Spain in case of European conflict but had said that the policy of General Franco’s Government remained the same as it had been last September when Franco had assured the British and French Governments that in case of general European war Spain would remain neutral. Jordana had stated further that after 2 years of civil war the desire of the entire Spanish people for peace was overwhelming and that it was ridiculous to imagine that Spain could be drawn into a general European conflict.
These statements coupled with the written “good neighbor” declaration were regarded by Bonnet as equivalent to a promise of neutrality.
Bonnet said, however, that he expected Spain to join the Anti-Comintern Pact. He added that this did not especially disturb him, and indicated in every way a sanguine optimism with regard to future relations between Franco’s Government and France.
I asked him if he did not feel that the Phalangistas might become increasingly powerful and gradually push Spain into an attitude of hostility toward France. He said that on the contrary the new head of the Phalangistas General Serrano Suner, Franco’s brother-in-law, was a conservative who in reality desired the return of the Monarchy and not a Fascist state.
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